Officer Potter: Division II
by Monica Moss
Summary: As Kaito Kuroba, motivated by his criminal career, participates with his classmates in an exchange program, he finds that there's a good chance that Snake might finally be caught. However, Kaito runs the risk of being caught himself by the strange type of law enforcement that secretly call themselves Aurors... Will Snake find himself behind bars? Will Kid's acts be forced to end?
1. Chapter 1

Happy 2014, everyone! I have here a fanfic that will be posted as I can get through proofreading the rest of this story. Despite the number two in the subtitle, this is a stand-alone story. (Well, actually, there is a prequel, I'm just unlikely to ever write it.)

Knowledge of Harry Potter and Magic Kaito required to understand this story. Knowledge of Detective Conan recommended, even if it only plays a background role in this particular fanfic.

PS, sorry about taking this down earlier. I wasn't quite as ready to post the story as I'd thought. I wanted to have this story completely written before I posted this, so I took this down to redo the ending of the story because I wasn't quite satisfied with it.

Warnings: Criminal protagonist, some violence in the later chapters.

Pairings: KaitoxAoko, RonxHermione.

Disclaimer: Gosho Aoyama is to Magic Kaito as J. K. Rowling is to Harry Potter, and J. K. Rowling is to Harry Potter as I am to nothing on this site.

* * *

"You're the most talented detective I know, and I don't expect you to let me down now, Hakuba. Please take a crack at finding Kid's target." Chief Gregors produced a typed note signed with Kid's signature caricature and contained in an evidence bag and slid it across the desk to the teenage detective:

to my friends in england:

trouble will come in a flash. that with a brightness lasting ever longer than the show's product's will disappear from the Century museum on _axis_ street On the night of the twenty _5__th_ at ten. (this prize Now Openly calls the best thief in _town._) this _town_ Has other jewels with their own _weight_ in value, but none can compare with the prize of a wise man.

phantom thief 1412

ps, please send a carbon copy of this to homicide, will you? i'm expecting some nasty party crashers.

Hakuba frowned, cupping his head in one hand. "Well, Chief, the phantom thief should know how to use better capitalization and formatting, so the capital letters and italics must mean something."

"In other words, he's using a code?"

Nodding absently, the detective commented, "The guy is fond of them." He opened his notebook and made two columns. The first he labeled as _capitalized_; the second he labeled as _italicized_. Then a long pause filled the office as he puzzled over the meaning of the words.

When Hakuba looked stumped, Gregors asked, "It didn't take you this long the last few times you solved Kid's riddles. Is this one particularly hard?"

"Yes," Hakuba responded. "I hate to admit it, but Kid does have the intelligence to leave troublesome riddles when he wants to, and he did engineer a case I couldn't solve. Kid is probably excited about this heist if he made the time and place clear, but made a particularly difficult riddle for the target."

Gregors nodded. "I've seen his intelligence for myself these last few months when he's been hitting England hard. He's the smartest criminal I've ever met."

"Unfortunately," Hakuba grumbled, "and he's mad too."

"My mother used to say nobody could be that sharp without some sort of chemical imbalance in the brain."

Hakuba blinked. "Chemical?" he repeated. The footnote contained the phrase carbon copy instead of the word forward. Could it be a clue?

"That's what she said," the chief confirmed.

"No, not that," said Hakuba. He looked at his columns again and wrote at the bottom of the first: C, O, (NO), and H. He googled the periodic table on his phone to check the chemistry. Frowning, the detective circled the (_NO)_. Nitrogen and oxygen weren't supposed to bond in a one-to-one ratio, however...

Hakuba's eyes jumped to the other column.

His eyes suddenly alight in understanding, Hakuba moved his pen to the other column and wrote the first of the italicized words: _axis_. He crossed out the _a_. With the _a _gone, the letters _x, i, _and _s _were left. Rearranged, they spelled _six_. _Axis, _six. _5__th__, _five. _Town_, two. _Weight_, eight. At the bottom of the column, Hakuba matched the numbers with the letters that had occurred before them, getting _C__6__O__5__(NO__2__)__2__H__8_. He then rearranged the formula to achieve standard notation and got _C__6__H__8__(NO__2__)__2__O__5__._

Hakuba returned his attention to his phone and did a search on the formula, hoping it would be a clue for the target. "Nitrocellulose?" he wondered to himself.

"Did you find something?" Gregors asked.

"Perhaps," Hakuba answered, still looking at the information on the compound. He suddenly smirked. "Nitrocellulose is a flammable substance used in explosives. Previously, Kid's worked with explosives in some of his tricks and distractions, and, as he says, 'trouble will come in a flash.' I'm certain he meant to hide the formula for nitrocellulose in his note."

"Explosives!?"

"I doubt he'd hurt anyone with them, but there's always a first time," Hakuba responded. "Now to check the compound against the rest of the riddle." He glanced back over the rest of the note.

"'That with a brightness lasting ever longer than the show's product's,' huh?" Hakuba looked deep in thought. "The target should be something carbon-based, but there must be something about nitrocellulose that's significant. Something that lasts a relatively short time."

Hakuba looked up. "Chief, is there a list of gemstones displayed in the museum? Perhaps someone's tried narrowing potential targets down by checking gemstones against the riddle?"

"As a matter of fact, there is a list. When we got the notice, we sent an officer to get the list of items to be in the museum on the specified date and the backgrounds of each item in hopes that we'd be able to prevent the theft. My men have narrowed the list down to ten items."

"I'd like to see this list and the descriptions."

"Very well. I'll have Carpenter bring it here right away." The chief picked up his radio and ordered just that, then he and the teenage detective sat in silence for a few minutes before a short, young officer came in with the list.

"Here, sir, the list?"

"Give it to our young detective friend."

"Yes. Here, kid, the note said that the thing belonged to a wise man, so we narrowed things down to the Solomon's Scepter, the Platonic Rock, the Clear Buddha, the Wizard's Coal, the Perot Poet, the Davidic Diamond, the Kong Qiu Quartz, the Prometheus Eye, the Owl's Home, and the Thoth's Tablets."

Hakuba remained solemn as he studied the list. "Do you have the museum's descriptions?"

"Yes, here."

The detective took the list and looked over it. He looked triumphant halfway through reading. "That's it," he said.

"Which stone is it?"

Placing the list on the desk, Hakuba declared, "It's the Wizard's Coal. Its name is the reason Kid bothered to put the formula for nitrocellulose into his manifesto. Take a look at the background for this item." As Chief Gregors and Constable Carpenter leaned over the paper, Hakuba explained, "It says that it got its name for the man who discovered it, Taliesin Floyd, who shared the name of a wizard in Welsh folklore, but what interests us is the explanation for the _coal _part of its name."

"From Latin _rubinus_," the chief read, "meaning both _ruby_ and _coal_."

"Yes. There was a myth that rubies have their red color because they contain flames that can never be extinguished. It's not so great a leap from flames to coal. The flames are what make me so certain that this is the jewel Kid's after. If I'm not mistaken, some of the names that came up with my search on nitrocellulose earlier, _flash paper, flash cotton, _and _flash string_, are those of products used to create fire tricks in magic shows, and the supposed inextinguishable flames of a ruby would qualify as the same sort of brightness produced by such products."

"In conclusion," Hakuba stated, "Kid is after a gem that belonged to a 'wise man' – a _wizard_, has a name connected with carbon and a brightness from flames, much like those resulting from the substance whose formula he coded into the note – a ruby called _coal_: _The Wizard's Coal._"

* * *

Unwillingly, Harry had climbed a rung within the Auror Department. He had received responsibility for all magical cases in the Muggle world.

Harry got his new position after a mass homicide case framing supporters of Muggle rights. He had thought something fishy about the case. He followed his hunch and stumbled across a young Japanese Muggle detective with the same dubiousness.

The young investigator had helped the Aurors get permission for further investigation by finding proof that the suspects who had confessed to the murders could not possibly have committed the crimes, and then he had helped the Aurors find the true culprits. The Japanese detective revealed the motive as a wish to quash the growing Muggle rights movement.

The young detective himself had set off a quiet alarm for Harry. Harry had noticed something off in the grade-schooler's behavior and had investigated the child. Harry had found that the child was a missing high school detective named Shin'ichi Kudou rather than a real grade-schooler.

Harry was promoted for the work he'd done with Shin'ichi, but he knew Shin'ichi had done all the work. Harry felt he deserved no promotion, but he was moved up within the Auror department anyway, on Shin'ichi's account.

The detective had benefited from contact with the Aurors too: the Aurors had restored Shin'ichi to age seventeen with minimal side-effects. However, the Aurors had also wormed the story from him of how he had lost a few years in the first place.

Shin'ichi had done the work that had gotten Harry promoted, so the Auror had protested his rank advancement. Harry's boss had said he showed initiative both in using an unusual source and in investigating Shin'ichi's de-aging, so he had promoted Harry anyway.

Harry's promotion had accompanied other changes in the serial murders' aftermath; significant changes had come through new legislation too. For example, a bill had been proposed sometime in the past month that would allow Aurors to use more magic to protect Muggles if the magic could be explained away. The bill had, today's _Daily Prophet_ informed Harry, passed in the Wizengamot.

Harry was reading an investigative report from Hermione Granger on the possible shrinking potion contained within Apotoxin when something else to read came whizzing through the office door. It was a memo, which Harry snatched from the air with ease. He opened it up to read:

To: Harry Potter

From: Myopia Tolkien, Department of Mysteries

Subject: URGENT

A taboo has been violated for an object in a prophesy that survived the battle against the Dark Lord in our Ministry. The object's taboo has been violated in an environment that concerns both my department and yours.

The object is a powerful magical artifact called the Wizard's Coal. Lost for a century, its name has now reappeared inside a Muggle police station. This worries us because we know our world will be endangered if something in particular happens to Wizard's Coal, something that concerns any law enforcement.

Please send someone to check on the situation for us _immediately_. We will share pertinent literature on the Wizard's Coal if required.

Regards,

Myopia Tolkien

An urgent notice from and Unspeakable for Harry? Harry wondered why the Wizard's Coal had the Unspeakables so worried while he wrote an Auror in his command, Presbert, an order to go take a look and send the Department of Mysteries word on the Wizard's Coal.

After Harry had sent it off, he picked Hermione's report on the rare side-effects in Apotoxin pills back up. Hermione had found shrinking potions unlikely to be included in the suspicious poison because only Apotoxin's survivors had shrunk.

Although the shrinking Japanese Muggles had only poison in common in their cases, the poison would have shrunken its victims' corpses had it contained shrinking potions. Furthermore, the poison's creator had been as unfamiliar with magic as Harry had been in childhood when she had developed the drug.

Harry was just reading Hermione's call for further research when he received another memo. It read:

To: Harry Potter

From: Myopia Tolkien

Subject: URGENT

The conditions are correct for the prophesy to occur. The prophesy is something we must prevent from coming true. We will brief you in Conference Room D at once. Put together a small team for the emergency and come.

Wishing for the best,

Myopia Tolkien


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the read and the feedback. To my reviewer, Pineapple King: thanks for your comments. I'm sure Ran slapped Shin'ichi when he came back too. :)

* * *

Harry was receiving memos from the taboo Hakuba broke through decoding the notice from the Phantom Thief Kid in the police station while the thief himself was eavesdropping on the police. Kid had taken on his civilian identity, a black-haired blue-eyed Japanese teenager named Kaito Kuroba. He lay on the bed provided through Ekoda High School's winter term exchange program, appearing for all the world to be listening to music rather than doing something much less innocent.

Kaito lay in bed, facing away from the door to play with a stolen sapphire and a stolen ruby in secret while he listened to Presbert ask for Kid's latest case. Oddly enough, Kaito noticed the man ask for the case by the target's name rather than his alterego's name. Kaito would have suspected someone would ask for Kid's case by the thief's name rather than the target's because of Kid's recent limelight in the British news for stealing the sapphire the teenager now toyed with. Not unless someone had discovered his note's deceptive claim?

The young magician scrutinized the ruby in his hand. The ruby remained undiscovered that starred in his trick at the museum, right? Fortunately, it became clear that the trick remained undiscovered as Kaito listened in on Officer Presbert for a moment longer; the officer showed surprise when told that Kid had promised to steal the Wizard's Coal.

Maybe Presbert had merely noticed suspicious activity around the gem Kaito targeted, or someone like him had. Kaito's activities remained unnoticed for sure - the teenager had set up too well to be caught - but perhaps his foes' got noticed?

Kaito smiled at the thought of someone noticing Snake's activities. If someone had noticed Snake's group hanging around the museum and worried over the Wizard's Coal's safety in particular, then they would have to know about the ruby's fabled divining power. Since they had also involved the police, then maybe the police would finally catch Snake. Otherwise, the police would still likely discover the murderer's existence and a hint of Snake's agenda.

The police saw Presbert leave at the speed at which he'd come, leaving them and Kaito confused. Kaito wondered, if the officer hadn't entered the station to report something he'd seen, then why had he?

Kaito gave the question a little thought before he dismissed it. He decided it didn't matter because _he_ had warned the police about Snake, the nasty party-crasher. Besides, he needed to hear the talk in the police chief's office more than he needed to analyze Presbert's behavior now that he heard an officer announce to Gregors: "Chief, we have another visitor: Officer Potter. He wants to know about Kid the Phantom Thief."

The chief replied, "All right, Whitman, send him in."

"Yes, sir."

The chief was greeted by a voice Kaito assumed to be Potter's. Then another voice addressed the chief, Inspector Nakamori's. "Can we talk _now?_ I waited arr afternoon! I know somesing about Kid. I know his mesod at zis crime!"

"_Later_, Nakamori," said Chief Gregors. "Officer Potter comes here only with urgent matters."

The chief paused slightly as he addressed Potter instead. "Are you here to take the Wizard's Coal's case then?"

Potter answered, "No, Chief. It appears we have joint jurisdiction on the case."

"That right? That hasn't happened since the serial homicide case in the fall."

"Yeah, that case was tough. This new case will be tough for us in a different way. We can only hope it's unrelated to the last one. Er, I have details for your ears only again."

"Yes, yes, of course," replied the chief. "Carpenter, Whitman, Hakuba, Nakamori, you're dismissed."

Nakamori's voice cried through Kaito's headphones, making the teen flinch. "WHAT? _I_ usuarry chase Kid. _Why_ don't _I_ get zis information? Should we not arr catch Kid togezer?"

"Now, Nakamori...!"

Potter cut in, explaining: "I'm sorry, sir. I bring information on the target's sensitivity rather than on Kid himself. The information I will discuss with the chief falls outside Kid's case."

Gregors cleared his throat. "Inspector, everyone else, you must leave. Well? What are you still doing here?"

Nakamori and the other must, Kaito imagined, have worn comical looks when they realized they would not get to hear whatever Potter knew about the case. Kaito allowed himself a private snicker, knowing _he_ would get to hear what Potter said.

Kaito did not get to hear what Potter had to say. He heard quiet on his earpiece for a few moments, during which time he assumed all uninvited parties left the room. Then, he heard static. Kaito tapped the earpiece and played with its controls, but he could not get it to relay anything else from the bug in Gregor's office.

Frowning, Kaito removed the useless earpiece from his ear. He guessed he'd have to learn what Potter knew some other way. He'd have to ask around the police station about the officer to find out which branch the officer worked in. Then he'd have to sneak into that branch to find Potter's information.

Kaito heard a knock on the bedroom door and hide the stolen treasures, calling out in Japanese, "Who is it?" He received no answer from the knocker.

The knocker instead entered the room. It was Akako Koizumi, the classmate who often warned Kaito of danger before Kid heists.

Kaito sat up, snapping, "What do you want? Shouldn't you be in the girls' dormitory having that girls' night?"

The witch pursed her lips at Kaito. "You've been avoiding me since you signed up for the exchange program," she accused, "and now you've announced the heist Lucifer showed me back in Japan."

"Heist? I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do know. You'd be in great trouble if you carried through with your next heist, Kuroba." the witch replied. "Just how much trouble you have no idea."

"I really don't know what you're talking about, Akako."

"You _know_ I know who you are, Kaito Kuroba. It would make things a lot easier if you'd just stop pretending around me."

"Oh, and why would it make things easier? It's not like I could use the information you bring me. Maybe Kaitou Kid could, but I'm not him."

"You insult both our intelligences with denying your identity when we both know I know who you are!" Akako shouted, face reddening from anger. "Anyways, call off this one. Remember I told you that Lucifer showed me a noble stag lying in wait for one midnight dove, a stag with abilities beyond even the moonlight magician's? Lucifer said your chances of capture at this heist are higher this time than ever before. Call it off, or at least, remember I warned you when you get caught."

"Even if I were Kid, I'd still have to go, wouldn't I?" Kaito asked. "When Kid announces a heist, he follows through, no matter how many classy noble stags there are. He never backs down from a challenge, you know."

Akako grabbed the thief's shoulders, maneuvering him so he had to look her in the eye. "You don't understand! _You're up against a guy who can do things you can't! _At least know what you're facing off against, Kuroba!"

Kaito stared at the witch as she released him to turn toward the door. She left him alone in the room with, "If you decide you want to look before you leap, I've left some books under the billiard table in the lounge. You'll see them if you think the phrase _spider's silk_. Even if you choose to ignore my warning, I suggest you remember the phrase."

"Me, outclassed?" Kaito whispered to himself, "In what? I wasn't even outclassed when Akako showed up to challenge me with real magic. If I'm right about Officer Potter, he should be a similar case."

* * *

Back at the police station, the chief prepared for yet another odd conversation with one of Britain's top Aurors. After Harry secured the privacy in the office, Gregors asked, "So why exactly is the magical world interested in the upcoming heist?"

"Mostly because the target has a prophesy involved with it. However, we also have some interest in the Phantom Thief Kid himself."

"I'm guessing the bit involving Kid's not the type of thing you could tell Nakamori?"

"Not with international laws. Besides, the idea that Kid's a wizard is just a suspicion right now. He has not had any true magic detected at his previous heists, at least, none that the Japanese Ministry are certain he performed."

"What does that mean?"

"To be honest, we aren't sure. We hope to see if we can get anything else on the situation on this assignment. Right now, we cannot say for sure what Kid is, but that's not the main point of my visit. I came to say Kid's target greatly interests the magical community."

"Don't tell me the Wizard's Coal is actually a _magical_ gemstone?"

Harry nodded. "The Wizard's coal wasn't discovered by a Mister Floyd, nor did it get its name from a mythological wizard. That was something made up for Muggles about the stone. It really got its name for Myrrdin Wyllt, a mad Welsh Seer."

"A Seer? I don't recall this being explained before. What's that?"

"Well, a Seer is someone who can foresee the future. The concept is largely laughable, even among wizards, but sometimes Seers can have reputations for high accuracy, like Mad Myrrdin – er, Myrrdin Wyllt. Anyway, Myrrdin made a prophesy that the Wizard's Coal would be stolen. The prophesy has us concerned about the stone. Er, if it's stolen anyway."

"The Wizard's Coal has a prophesy about its theft. Just what did this prophesy say, Potter?"

"Er, I've brought a transcript to give you full verbatim, should the need arise, but for now, let's just say its theft will create a threat to the magical community."

"And because Kid has threatened to steal it, that time might be very soon," Gregors supplied.

"Right, exactly."

"So you think Kid might turn dangerous if he gets the ruby? He has no record of causing serious harm, but he could always start, I suppose."

"To be honest, _Kid_ isn't the threat we're worried about."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"We're worried about a threat that will endanger Kid too. Kid is a 'black-feathered dove' in the prophecy that snatches the gem away. The prophesy later refers to a serpent that hunts both the dove and the gem. The serpent is the threat."

"The serpent wouldn't be the 'nasty party-crashers' Kid mentioned?" Gregors probed. "He did want the homicide unit involved."

Harry shrugged. "Do you reckon Kid might know something about someone who might become a public threat ?"

"Most likely he does know something that we should, but I doubt we'll learn until after the threat's created. However, we might want to share the emerging threat with the others on the case, even if we don't tell them the full reason we think the danger Kid mentioned will become even more dangerous."

"Right," Harry agreed.

"What do you Aurors intend to do about the serpent if it appears at the heist, like Kid thinks it will?"

"Well, er, to be honest, we don't know. We aren't even entirely sure what the threat is."

"Do you have anything else for me?"

"No... Er, if you're okay with everything, I'll leave you with the transcript now. It's been spelled so you'll need the pass phrase, _gargoyle grease_, to see it. You don't need to say the words out loud. In fact, it might be better if you don't: we don't want others getting the phrase to access the prophesy."

"Thank you. Keep in touch."

As Harry left the office, Gregors looked over the transcript:

In a far time,

from the day's far new,

Black-feathered Dove

appeareth to you.

This fiery rock,

this wizard's coal,

for to snatch in the moon

is that dove's goal.

That harmless dove

hath an harmful tail;

him a serpent followeth,

willend for to prevail.

If then the dove

Wizard's Coal do steal,

be dove and coal hunted

by serpent as meal.

That harmfullest tail!

A foe revealed,

a threat from Muggle men

be unconcealed.

Ne safe be ye.

Nay, be not none,

'less will ne the dove fly

for brennend stone.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I'm actually disappointed in the way this story turned out, for multiple reasons. I said that I would finish every story I started (at least, eventually - I'm still trying to get around to Owlstone) on my profile, so I've decided that I will post the rest of this story without as careful proofreading and editing than I otherwise would and decide from there whether I even want to keep this story on fanfiction. Anyway, on to the chapter.

* * *

Appointment books made life easy for a phantom theif like Kaito, especially when he needed to eavesdrop on the police chief's appointments since bugs would stop working when one Harry Potter came to talk to the chief. Appointment books worked even better when Kaito already had a disguise to get him close to the appointment.

Kaito knew he would need to prepare even more thoroughly for the Wizard's Coal's heist than for a normal one since he had been approached by Akako, who warned him to call the heist off. He knew he would have to deal with a difficult new opponent. Kaito, though he was a daredevil, did not like to enter danger unprepared, so he had started setting up a way to get information on Akako's "noble stag" before he sent the crime notice.

If Kaito's heist should fail, then he would still have the Wizard's Coal away from Snake, thanks to his preparation, but Kid needed to go through with the heist anyway. The heist was the most important part of his gig because it was for the sake of Kid's lawful opponents. After all, if lawful opponents posed a threat to Kid, they also posed a threat to the organized crime Kid wanted brought down.

In fact, Kaito had taken on the role of a fictitious greenie in the Japanese task force ever since he had arrived in England. It was all too easy to pretend to be a member of the Task Force to the British police officers when the Task Force weren't around, and often even when they were because Nakamori wasn't that attentive to his men. Ah, the benefits of international travel for a police disguise. Kaito was using such benefits right now to start up a conversation about Akako's "noble stag" inside the police station before the guy got there to meet with the chief again.

"Herro..." Kaito checked the name on the badge of the officer he was about to talk to. "...Sergeant Edwards." The man was from the homicide division, not the division that had dealt with Kaito in his criminal persona while he in England thus far. Kaito grinned at the man, who could see nothing of the thief's true face, but rather a grinning, green-eyed, young member of the Japanese task force chasing Kid.

"You too, Officer ... How do say your name?"

"Kakiudo."

"Ka-kyudo?"

Kaito shrugged. "Crose enough. Hey, do you know zat one guy? Zat guy not sharing information wish Inspector Nakamori? Information about Kaitou Kid?"

Edwards parroted, "Kaitou Kid?"

"Zat is Kid ze Phantom Shief's name in Japan. Inspector Nakamori spent many years wish zat guy's case. He was mad because zat guy didn't share his information. He shouted arr day. He scared high school students because he shouted so much."

Edwards flinched in sympathy, remembering the inspector's shouts for himself. "I suppose there wasn't any avoiding it. Officer Potter will only ever talk to the chief. None of the rest of us know what unit he's from, just that he has at least as much authority as our chief here in London himself, and that he's from a unit that has a different jurisdiction than ours. We don't even know what's up with the weird titles of him and his coworkers. All of them have taken _officer_ for a title, well, except for Detective Granger, leaving us no clue of their actual ranks."

"Is zat not a bit strange?"

"It's more than a bit strange. It's very strange. And stranger still is that it's not just him. There are others like him as well."

"Ozers?"

"We've heard of more, but the three that most of us can name are Officer Potter and his friends Officer Weasley and Detective Granger. Detective Granger will sometimes talk to us to get details on a case and make small talk, but she never talks about what she does on the force. Likewise, Officer Weasley will sometimes challenge us to chess, but he won't talk about his career either."

Kaito listened as Edwards told him rumors about Potter and other mysterious police officers like him. The rumors got stranger and less believable as Edwards progressed, any theories the London police had about the officers also getting stranger and less fact-based.

After about fifteen minutes of Kaito getting what information he could from Edwards, a small disturbance was caused by a scrawny man with messy, jet-black hair, round glasses, and strikingly green eyes entering the station. Although the man's entrance shouldn't have been a big deal, Kaito noticed that the officers gave him several less-than-discreet glances and started whispering. Although Kaito already knew who it was who was scheduled for an appointment with the chief, Kaito asked Edwards, "Hey, is zat guy Officer Potter?"

Edwards nodded. "Yes, that's him."

Kaito watched Potter approach Gregors' office door from the corner of his eye as he excused himself from the conversation. He walked toward the coffee maker, only to make a detour to an air duct just out of sight. He quickly checked his mental map of the air duct plans he'd memorized to find the route to Gregors' office.

He quickly and quietly crawled to the opening that allowed him to peer down inside Gregors' office unseen. Oddly, an unidentifiable buzzing filled his ears when he got close enough that he should have been able to hear voices coming from the office. Ignoring the buzzing, Kaito looked to see what Gregors and Potter were doing.

The two men were hovering over a piece of paper on the desk. Potter was pointing at the paper with some kind of stick, and his lips were moving, but Kaito couldn't make out what he was saying with the buzzing in his ears. Whatever it was that Potter had said caused Gregors to shout in surprise, but to Kaito's surprise, he couldn't hear that either. All Kaito could hear was the mysterious buzzing.

Kaito recalled Akako's words regarding his heist: _I've seen a noble stag in my crystal ball, lying in wait for one midnight dove, and this stag is capable of things even the moonlight magician is not. __You are outclassed, Kuroba._

Kaito frowned. Outclassed, huh? Kaito knew he couldn't back out of his heist, but if Potter was the one responsible for his hearing nothing but buzzing even when Gregors shouted in surprise, then he was going to have a tough time with this one. He was going to find a way to outclass the stag outclassing him some way, and he wasn't going to let the strange murmuring stop him. The thief quietly slipped a pair of binoculars out from inside his shirt and put it to his eyes.

Kaito couldn't see the contents of the paper on the desk. Cursing his luck, he decided he would simply have to sneak in later and look at it on his own. He hung around to watch where the paper Potter had brought ended up.

After what seemed like hours to the poor teenager who could only wait in the vents for the police to be done talking, Potter gave the paper one final tap with the stick that Kaito now understood to be a magic wand, rolled it up, and handed it to Gregors, who promptly locked it in one of his desk drawers. Gregors leaned forward on his desk, and with an urgent look on his face, asked Potter something. Potter smiled and said something back briefly.

Potter flicked his wand in the air, and the buzzing promptly stopped. "I'll be seeing you soon then, Chief. Er, you remember both passwords, right?"

"Yes, I do. This plan better work, Potter. I don't want to see any British citizens endangered if this fails."

In the vent, Kaito blinked. Were they talking about Snake? But he wouldn't retaliate against the public if the police didn't catch him, would he? What would he stand to gain by doing that?

"We'll do our best, sir. Don't worry; I have full faith in our Aurors."

Aurors?

* * *

The word floated through Kaito's head all that day. It couldn't be found in a normal English-Japanese dictionary, so he assumed it must have been a technical term that would be easier to find in the books Akako had mentioned to him than any typical reference books. Kaito soon planned to examine Akako's magic books and the museum blueprints sitting in Gregors' desk at a time when he wouldn't be caught, and relax for the time being.

Kaito spent the rest of his afternoon in the group being shown around London by Hakuba, who knew all the best of the local entertainment and food places. After a long afternoon of following the half-Brit around, teasing the Task Force officer who was the chaperon for their particular group, and munching on picnic-sized meat pies, the exchange students finally returned to the dorms and crashed. Kaito was just glad Hakuba wasn't his roommate for the trip, for although Hakuba's mother lived in London, Hakuba had come with the exchange program. Kaito would have been inconvenienced if Hakuba were his roommate because the detective would have had a chance to take a closer look at the listening devices the magician had disguised as an MP3 and maybe even catch Kaito sneaking out to do something for a Kid heist.

Kaito was sneaking out to do something for a Kid heist that night, in fact. He needed to sneak out of bed to study his opponents' plans to capture him. Kaito grabbed a pen light and made his way down to the billiard table in the dormitory lounge, where Akako said she had left her books, but looking under the table, there was nothing.

_Right, the password. Spider's silk._

There, under the billiard table, was a collection of books looking like they came right out of Akako's magic room. _The Unabridged Glossary of Protective Charms_ and _Magical Concealment and Security for the Complete Muggle_ were among the titles included.

Kaito grabbed one of the books and looked in its index for the word _Auror_. After looking up many possible spellings, he finally found it and was able to read about Aurors in the text of _Magical Concealment and Security for the Complete Muggle._ From what he read, he inferred that Aurors were the magical version of the police. Potter was from a magical branch of law enforcement.

_I've really got to prepare in order to pull this off. Let's go have a look at those blueprints in Chief Gregors' desk. _He smirked, knowing through the information gained by his bug that the chief would be in meetings in the city hall for the rest of the night. The chief shouldn't catch him borrowing blueprints from his desk.

Kaito grabbed his sketchpad, several pens, his lock-picks, and a small jar of clay, and changed into dark, concealing clothing. He sneaked out of the exchange students' dormitories and went to the police station. As he suspected, Gregors had left by the time he got there, and all he had to do was to avoid the officers around the station and sneak into the chief's office via air vents.

Once inside, Kaito clicked his penlight on and carefully applied a thin layer of clay to the metal circle around the lock. He then picked the lock and removed the clay that had been preventing tell-tale scratch marks from giving his break-in to the desk drawer away.

To Kaito's luck, there were only two papers in the desk that were actually rolled up, as the paper that Potter had shown Gregors had been. One was most likely that same piece of paper, or maybe parchment would have been a better word for what he'd found.

Anticipating what he'd find, Kaito unrolled the parchment. What he found was disappointing; both pieces were completely blank. Kaito looked back to the inside of the desk drawer. _There's got to be some sort of trick. Maybe the chief unrolled the paper later and put it with the others?_

However, there were no papers that showed signs of having been rolled up. Inwardly cursing, Kaito carefully put the papers back the way he'd found them. He paused when he got to the parchment. _Hold on, maybe it's a magical trick._ _Maybe Officer Potter did something to it that hides its contents until it's unspelled?_

Thinking back to watching Gregors and Potter earlier, Kaito realized that only Potter had been using a wand on the parchment. Was there a reason why the chief didn't? Most likely, the chief couldn't have magicked the parchment. He was, after all, with the normal police force, not the Aurors.

_I assume these would have been more secure under magical protection than here at a normal police station_, _therefore, the purpose of leaving this with Chief Gregors was not for safe-keeping,_ Kaito reasoned to himself. _Officer Potter must have wanted him to have a copies of whatever these are. If that's the case, and my assumptions about Chief Gregors are correct, then there must be a way to access the information without using real magic on the parchment. Come to think of it, Officer Potter did mention something about passwords._

Kaito's eyes widened slightly. _Hold on, didn't Akako say to remember that password of hers, even if I didn't listen to her about calling off my heist after I looked through her books? Don't tell me Lucifer told her the password to this thing._

Smirking, Kaito thought at the parchment 'spider's silk.' One of the pieces of parchment remained blank, to Kaito's disappointment. But on the other piece, blueprints of the museum appeared with the password, and one very delighted phantom thief took note of all the Auror's ideas of how to prevent him from taking the Wizard's Coal. He would get an idea of what to prepare for here, keep up-to-date on any new ideas anyone brought in through his bugs mainly, ask some very intelligent questions at a police briefing, and then it would be easy to anticipate many of the sorts of last-minute decisions could interfere with his counter-plan. It was the thief's usual process for challenging heists, but this heist would have special challenges that would make Kaito's criminal plan just beautiful when he worked around them.


	4. Chapter 4

The Aurors' ideas had been explained to the chief, who had collaborated on security details with them, and now it was time to explain the final plan to the rest of the Muggle police force to the extent they were allowed to know. The Aurors had sent Harry and Ron for the dual briefings that night that dealt with Kid's heist. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair, then glanced over at Ron.

Ron assured him, "Relax, mate. You'll do fine." However, the advice was hypocritical because Ron himself looked as nervous as he sometimes had been right before a Quidditch match as the Gryffendor Keeper. "We've done this loads of times before."

"But not for any foreign police officers. Wish Hermione'd told us more about Japanese customs."

The Aurors were interrupted in their nervous fest by Gregors. "Relax," he said, "The Japanese have a translator, and the inspector in charge of them is familiar enough with the English language and customs by now that it's not an issue working with him. Now if you two would go to the breifing room sometime this century, maybe you could stop the growing restlessness in there."

"Right." The two Aurors followed the chief to the briefing room, where the body of Muggle police officers after Kid was indeed getting restless. Harry's green eyes scanned the crowd, noting new officers from the local force the Aurors had worked with before as well as the officers of the small group of foreign officers that had followed Kid from his native country.

Dimly aware that he'd just been introduced, Harry nodded his greetings to the crowd and stepped up to the podium to present. "Er," he began, "as you are well aware, an international thief known as the Phantom Thief Kid has sent out a manifesto saying he'll be stealing from the Century Museum on the twenty-fifth of this month. Detective Saguru Hakuba has figured out that his target is the Wizard's Coal. We, collectively, have been assigned to Kid for this heist."

The crowd's more attentive members sat through his speech with glazed looks in their eyes as a translator relayed Harry's words to the Japanese.

After a moment, Harry continued, "A special team of officers will make sure the Century Museum is empty four hours before the heist. The only ones inside after that will be police officers, but since Kid's been known to sneak inside to his heists disguised as an officer before, it's up to us to catch him if he tries this."

"Potter!" cried out the Japanese inspector – Nakamori if Harry recalled correctly – rather vigorously. "We search Kid's masks ebery time, and somehow zat Kid escapes ebery time. _Ebery._ Time! How can we capture him zat way?"

"Oy!" interjected Ron. "Wait a moment; he's getting to it."

"Er, we are aware of the pinch test, Inspector, and we will be using it too, of course, but masks and make-up are not the only ways to disguise someone. Anyways, in order to give us time to perform all the tests, we must ask that all personnel stationed inside for this stake-out arrive three hours early. There will be two guards screening all officers for disguises and questionable possessions at the entrance, and there will be no admittance after eight forty-five. Additionally, we will have special sensors on all doors, windows, vents, and any area unoccupied by the officers who are posted inside the museum."

"Wait, did you say _three hours early_?" Whitman interrupted.

Harry stared the offender down. "We will need the time to thoroughly check everyone to catch Kid and any of his accomplices on the way in. Do you have a problem with that, officer?"

"No, sir."

At this point, a young-looking officer, one of the Japanese officers, raised his hand. "No more questions or comments until the end!" Ron snapped at the unfortunate man. Looking a bit put-out, the officer removed his hand from the air.

"Anyway, only a few of us will actually be going inside in order to block entrances and exits inside the museum; we will only take the minimum number of officers we need inside. Those of us going inside are to be in position no later than one hour before the heist. Once inside, we will go to our assigned spots and remain there. We are not to get too close to the target or the thief himself. The less people actively trying to capture the Kid, the lesser his chance of escaping a dog-pile, as is another one of his specialties."

In the crowd, Nakamori stroked his chin. "Makes sense," he mumbled.

Harry continued. "For those of you going inside, Inspector Nakamori has suggested wearing a pair of sunglasses because he suspects Kid might use flash bombs to get past the police. I second his opinion, and I also suggest wearing ponchos over your uniforms because we will be having a waterfall at the entrance as part of our preparations to remove Kid's disguise. Er, there will be a large bin to put ponchos inside of once you are in the museum."

The officers in the crowd stared at Harry as though he were crazy, not that Harry could blame them. He'd found many things in the wizarding world just as strange when he first entered it as an eleven-year-old boy, and even if they'd passed off some of the enchantments they'd be using against Kid as Muggle security measures, they must still seem rather odd.

"You heard right," Harry assured them. "It's just an extra way of checking for disguises. It should wash away any makeup Kid decides to wear and dislodge any padding." There was no need for the police to know that the waterfall was really an enchantment known as the Thief's Downfall, which Harry had first encountered at Gringotts and knew to remove enchantments from objects that passed through it.

Harry paused, letting the crowd mumble about other ways of doing what he'd told them, before he continued. "Er, because of the waterfall, we will also be handing out special, water-proof, electronic pins that emit a special signal to those whose disguises have been verified. Once you receive a pin, you are not to hand it over to anyone for any reason until after the heist."

After the crowd settled down, Harry presented the next item in the plan. "We will have some people on the roof to watch the scene in the event that Kid escapes the building. All remaining officers will be stationed outside, ready to pursue Kid. Those stationed inside the building should remain at their posts and await further instructions."

Nakamori interrupted again, "Why should not inside people chase Kid? Kid goes outside. Zere, we can surround him, and zen we can capture him."

Ron hollered, "I said no more interruptions!"

Harry shook his head at Ron's protest. "No, Ron. It's a fair question to ask during the briefing." Harry looked at the inspector and answered, "We are asking those inside to remain inside because it will give us a portion of the force to chase Kid with if the officers outside end up chasing a dummy."

Harry paused. "Concerning officers outside, we will have several vehicles assigned to chase Kid when notified. We will also have several officers on foot directing traffic. We are not allowing civilians to loiter within fifty yards of the Century Museum, none of Kid's fans are allowed to crowd the building. The thief could too easily escape by blending into the crowd otherwise."

Regarding the crowd in general, Harry said, "Er, that's all you need to know about capturing Kid. However, if you've heard that there might be another threat at the heist, you've heard accurately. We're not exactly sure what the threat is, but everyone in attendance is to keep eyes open for any suspicious activity, whether there's a chance it's Kid or not. Everyone in attendance is also to wear bullet-proof vests and other protective clothing to the heist. I must also ask everyone who's here with the homicide unit to stay after the question and answer session for a further briefing on the potential threat. Now, if anyone has questions, I'll answer to the extent that I'm at liberty to."

The questions began with one from the young officer who had raised his hand earlier: "Kid can impersonate guards. What if Kid repraces a guard?" and the night went on.

* * *

The Aurors were confident in their plan to capture Kid – after all, how hard could it be to catch one over-confident thief? - but Hermione was not happy about her part of the plan. "Are you sure you couldn't talk the police into making an exception for me?" she asked again. "What do those sexist bigots think I'm going to do, fall for Kid and let him get away? And why isn't Chief Gregors overruling that particular proposal?"

Harry answered, "Most of the police are worried that you'd let Kid get away, and they don't know you well enough to know that your head's on better than that, but Chief Gregors is worried about sexual harassment. Kid's known as a gentleman thief, but he's also known as a pervert."

"I've handled worse than Kid," Hermione grumbled. "Besides, I wouldn't be wearing anything revealing."

"_We_ know you can handle the thief," Ron said, trying to placate his girlfriend. "But since the Muggles insist on being stupid, we at least found something else you can do to help."

The bushy-haired witch gave her friends a look. "When were you planning to tell me about this?"

"We wanted a few more details first," Ron explained. "Chief Gregors said he'd allow you to interview someone who know Kid who also aren't allowed at the heist, but he didn't tell us much more."

"Did he tell you who I'm talking to?"

"That one detective who solved the riddle," Ron answered. "What's-his-face."

"Saguru Hakuba," Harry answered. "I don't know much about him, but I know he's not allowed at the heist because they aren't letting private detectives anywhere the serpent chasing our dove is going to be. It's too dangerous for him."

Hermione nodded. Chatting with a detective who knew Kid could be useful, but she still wished she could take a more active role. "Can't I at least help set up the enchantments? I can do spells better than most our Aurors."

Ron looked at Harry. "I think Chief Gregors might allow that. It's not like she'd be dealing with Kid that way or anything."

"Right," Harry agreed. "We'll inform him. Er, Hermione, do you think you could find out what Hakuba knows about Kid and magic while you're talking to him? If he's ever noticed anything, well, you are the most skilled with getting around memory charms."

"I'd be a fool not to, wouldn't I?" Hermione turned around. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got an interview to prepare for."

* * *

Kaito felt very satisfied with the information he'd found on the guards. They were his ticket into his own heist, and the guard he'd chosen was an excellent candidate for passing along information to, information about the shady figures Kaito was keeping an eye on as he sat on a bench opposite the Century Museum, three prepackaged picnic pies beside him, and a newspaper he was browsing as he waited for Aoko to show up so he could go with her inside the museum to bring her father his lunch.

In the moments he wasn't watching Snake's men's movements, he was greatly enjoying his newspaper; he had made the front page again! He silently gloated over his accomplishments at the Tower of London as written in the paper, glancing up now and again to see his expected party-crashers whispering among themselves in front of a building on the street, glimpsing the two Auror guards playing the chess game he'd suggested to them to pass the time before their work that evening started out of the corner of his eye, as well as a creepily helpful classmate of his who was taking her broomstick toward the museum roof...

Kaito brought his eyes back to the newspaper. He'd finished the article about his alter ego stealing the Wizard's Coal that night and another article about how his alter ego could have escaped from the Tower of London with a priceless sapphire a few nights before – the British were still baffled that he had pulled it off – so he skimmed through the rest of the paper to see if he could find any other interesting articles about himself. But once he saw a headline about a local pawn shop that had suddenly gone out of business, his interest in the news vanished.

Kaito tossed the paper in the closest bin and checked his watch. It was time that Aoko should arrive at any moment. Glancing around the crowded street in front of him, he spotted the girl getting off the bus. Kaito grinned.

The mischief-maker picked the pies up off the bench and sneaked up behind his childhood friend. He couldn't do as much to her as he normally could with his arms full of picnic pies, so he blew in her ear.

Instantly Aoko's face went red with anger. "BAAKAAITOO!"

As he ducked under the angry girl's incoming arm, Kaito teased, "You can't take a joke at all. That's why you're reactions are so great!"

Then Aoko's fist made contact with the top of his head. "Not taking a joke is better than being unable to know when to stop, stupid!"

"Whatever," said Kaito. "Hey," he said, showing Aoko the three pies in his hands, "I got your dad the good stuff that Hakuba showed us, like you wanted me to, and I got some for us too."

"Really?"

"Yep. What did you think I was holding in my arms?"

Aoko's face lit up, seeing that Kaito indeed brought what he said he had. She grabbed his right arm and dragged him past the guards, screaming, "Come on!" Kaito allowed himself to be dragged past the guards, trying not to blush from the physical contact with Aoko. Aoko pulled him up the stairs and into the Wizard Coal's exhibition room.

"Otou-san!" she called, startling her father, who had been busy talking to Harry.

"Aoko?" her father asked.

"We brought you lunch," she told him cheerily.

"Who are these?" Harry asked.

"Dis is my daughter, Aoko, and her friend, Kaito. Zey are exchange students zis winter."

"Herro!" Aoko greeted.

"Nice to meet you," Kaito said politely.

"Same," Harry responded. "You speak really good English, Kaito. I can barely tell you're not a native speaker."

Kaito shrugged it off. "My dad traveled around the world when I was a kid. He often took me with him, so I started to learn English early. Dad wanted me to speak good English. He thought I might travel the world too when I grow up." Kaito grinned. "Of course," he said, accent suddenly changing, "I can sound like a native speaker for short periods of time if I concentrate."

Meanwhile, Aoko was handing her father the white lunch bag she'd brought inside with her, and he pulled the contents out curiously. Beside her, Kaito eeped and turned pale when he saw the Inspector's lunch. "Stupid Kaito," Aoko said, "it's just fish and chips."

"I know that, Ahoko!"

"Kaito-kun," said the inspector, "be nice wish my daughter."

Aoko stuck her tongue out at her best friend. "You should not scared by fish, Bakaito. Peopre eat fish often. Dad wanted fish and chips when we're here. Hey, don't you habe food to my dad too?"

"Aa, hai." Kaito handed a picnic pie to the inspector with a small bow, nervously eyeing the rest of the inspector's meal.

The inspector took the pie. "Isn't zis zat Engrish food you riked?" Experimentally, he took a bite.

"Good, yes?" piped Aoko.

"Yes, it is."

Kaito handed one of the remaining picnic pies to Aoko so she could eat with her dad, then opened his own and walked over to the railing around the side of the room, pretending to be interested in a painting of a child holding a dove on the wall. He put his free hand on the rail and leaned forward, slipping his fingers downward in order to feel if the flash paper he'd planted was still in place. Good. That night should be fun, or at least it should be fun before Snake and his men show up.

Harry came beside Kaito as he was checking on his preparations and munching the picnic pie and asked, "Are you a fan of art?"

"The dove is interesting," Kaito lied, removing his hand from the rail.

"The dove?" Harry asked.

Aoko, now finished eating lunch with her father, decided to join in the conversation. "Kaito rikes dobes a rot."

"Of course I do! The dove is an awesome magic creature that just wants peace." After a moment's pause, the magician added, "Even having such a magic creature in it, the painting is strangely appropriate for this room too."

Harry agreed, "Yeah, it is strangely appropriate, isn't it?"

Aoko frowned. "No magic is in zat painting, Kaito. And why is a painting strangery appropriate?"

"Does the painting really have no magic, Aoko? This is the 'Fantasy in Luxury' exhibit." Kaito translated the exhibit title for his friend. "Why is the painting here without connection to fantasy?"

"It comes wish zat ozer exhibit, stupid." Aoko referred to the Picasso exhibit that was neighboring the Fantasy in Luxury exhibit. Everyone could see that the piece had flowed over from the Picasso exhibit.

A look of annoyance crossed Kaito's face for a moment, but he shrugged it off. Turning away from the painting, he explained, "Whatever. The dove still means magic to me. If there's a child present around that dove, I think there's more humanity present around that dove too. If you're too focused on the dove, you can't see it in the painting."

Kaito paused. "Some people understand things as well as the child in the painting does. Those people just want the dove in their grasps. Those people don't understand that the dove had an excellent view of humanity up in the sky.""

"I don't understand Bakaito sometimes," Aoko grumbled. Ignoring Kaito's protest that he was sure that the dove had a very important mission, she asked Harry, "Why did you carr painting appropriate? You didn't mean someshing strange, no?"

"I just heard Kid being compared to a dove is all," the Auror responded.

Aoko smiled. "I see. It was nice to meet you. I'm sorry zat Kaito stupid."

"Are we going already?" Kaito asked.

Aoko scowled at Kaito. "Yes," she answered. "We shouldn't brock security." And it was with a different mood that Aoko pulled Kaito out of the room than the one she'd had when she'd pulled him into it.


	5. Chapter 5

After his long period of preparation, Kaito was nearly ready for his heist. He attached the final detail to the alibi dummy he was setting up in his bed to make his classmates think he was merely exhausted from a long day of tour rather than sneaking off anywhere – a timer that would inflate the dummy and play the recording of his snoring at a little before nine, when everyone else would be at dinner. Snickering to himself, he slipped out the window and pulled the string attached to the inside handle to close it behind him. "And now for this Kaitou Kid to prove that you don't have to be a wizard to be the best at magic." Kaito hid himself under a black cloak and ran to the nearest bus stop to jump on the roof of a bus on the route that stopped in front of the museum.

It was almost seven by the time the street-car made it to Kaito's stop and Kaito made it to the museum. Kaito arrived just in time to hear Ron's voice declare: "That's checkmate, mate. Normal or Muggle variety, I still rule as chess champion."

Things looked almost the same as how Kaito had left them that afternoon, if you ignored the addition of a large waterfall that was supposed to strip items of magical enchantments that covered the front door of the building, but the thief knew that there were dozens of enchantments already in place for that night inside. Otherwise, things _were_ the same as how Kaito had left them; even the guards still had the chessboard out. However, the thief knew that things were about to change.

"Yes, good game," said Ron's chess mate in response to checkmate. "Now, since we've only a few more minutes before the officers start arriving, go and put it away, Weasley. I got a note saying I'm supposed to Chief Gregors before the heist."

Kaito grinned a grin worthy of his night persona. He quietly followed Ron as he went to put the chess set back in a car that was parked far enough away to not get in the way of that night's pursuit vehicles, and, incidentally, was parked just far enough away that there were no law enforcement officers around to notice what he was about to do to their fellow. Kaito stood close behind Ron and held his stun gun to his back. "Don't turn around," he threatened, whispering in Kid's tones. "I just want to talk, but I will stun you if you don't cooperate."

Ron squeaked, "Kid the Phantom Thief?"

"There aren't many other people it would be, are there? Yes. I need to talk to you about that threat Officer Potter mentioned at the police briefing."

"You were at the police briefing?"

Kaito chuckled. "I'll give you three guesses who asked how the guards would know if one of them's been replaced."

"Oh. Er, you're going to impersonate me, aren't you?"

"Bingo! But first things first. I need to have a little chat with you about the police briefing." While Kaito was talking, he was also slipping his free hand around Ron's waist and removing Ron's uniform.

Nervously, Ron asked, "What makes you think I'll talk with you?"

"Please," said Kaito. "It's in the public interest. I was hoping we could talk about the dangerous third party we're expecting at my heist." Kaito put a rope around Ron's torso and started to tie him up.

"If they hurt you, it's your own bloody fault, innit?"

"I heard that the police think my pursuers are going to be a threat to civilians. Am I right?"

"Well, yes," Ron replied grudgingly. He continued, voice quivering, "You're a great slime ball if you're proud that you're putting people in danger by stealing like this."

Hurt, Kaito asked, "Do I sound proud of that? I've seen no evidence for myself that they'd be shooting at anyone but me and any officers that might go after them tonight. Do the police know something about them that I don't?" Kaito tested the ropes he'd tied Ron up with to ensure that the Auror would not be escaping them on his own.

"Trust me, civilians would be endangered."

"I see. Could you tell me what you know about that?"

Ron hesitated for a moment. "Well, er, Harry knows more than I do."

"Maybe," Kaito agreed, "but I'm in no position to talk to him." The thief started to put on his disguise.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I don't like it when people get hurt." Kaito allowed silence for a moment, in which Ron cleared his throat nervously. He knew it probably wasn't fair to demand information at gunpoint, even if the gun was just a stun gun, but if there was the possibility that what the Aurors knew could help him put his father's murderers behind bars, then he had to get that information, and he'd had precious little luck through espionage.

"Er, as I said, Harry knows more than I do. I can't really tell you much, you know?"

Kaito whispered in Ron's ear. "I don't really need to know that much. Just enough to keep people safe. I know we're on opposite sides of the law, but we can both agree that we'd rather not let innocent people get hurt, can't we?"

Ron's voice was incredulous the next time he spake, "I'm getting lectured about civilian safety by a criminal?"

"Yes," Kaito agreed, "by a criminal who has a policy about not letting anyone get hurt on his heists."

"Right," Ron agreed rather reluctantly, "I guess you do have a point there, but, er, are you sure you want to ask me what I know about the threat? I don't really know much, you know. I mean, Harry knows more than I do."

Kaito was starting to get fed up with the Auror's insistence that he should ask Potter instead. He pressed, "I'd be grateful for anything you can tell me."

"Well, er, to be honest, we're not completely sure ourselves," Ron answered.

"Oh?" There was a slight pause as Kaito slid a latex mask over his face. "Care to elaborate?"

"It's just that I don't really know that much. None of us do. Even though Harry knows more than I do, he doesn't know that much either. Why we couldn't answer those questions about the police briefing was because we didn't know that much. Er, our boss has plenty of reason to suspect danger, mind you, but as for what us officers know..."

Kaito faked reluctant acceptance in his voice as he said, "Ah, I understand. The boss has some sort of strategy that involves not telling you everything, huh?"

"Yeah, that's right."

Kaito was having no luck in getting information out of Ron. It was time to play his ace. "You know, I wouldn't mind knowing even as much as the common, hard-working officers like you and Officer Potter. Who knows? Maybe I could even tell you some things you Aurors would find interesting."

"You know what we are?" Ron asked. "Then you _are _part of the magical world then?"

Kaito chuckled. "Was that your hang-up in telling me what you know about tonight's uninvited guests? I assure you, I will do everything in my power to keep civilians safe, regardless of the nature of the threat, but to do that, I need to know everything I can about it."

"Oh, alright then. I s'pose it wouldn't hurt if a lowlife like you knew about it at this point anyway. There's a prophesy about the stone you're trying to steal." Ron informed Kaito. "It said that a 'black-feathered dove' would come and try to steal it."

"So that's what that inquiry about the Wizard's Coal without any mention of Kid was about!" Kaito realized. Then he realized he'd cut Ron off. "Sorry, go on."

The officer nodded almost imperceptibly. "Anyway, When it became clear what your manifesto was about, we reckoned you were the dove. It said that something more harmful than you would come on your tail. It said something about a serpent, but we don't understand that part yet."

"I'm sorry, a serpent?" Kaito asked. "As in, a snake?"

"Yeah."

"I think I know something about that. I'll tell you if something else in the prophesy doesn't rule out my suspicion."

"Right. Anyways, it said that if the dove steals the Wizard's Coal, the serpent will go after the dove and the coal. It also said if the dove steals the coal, that a threat from the Muggles will be revealed and no one will be safe."

"I'm sorry," Kaito interrupted. "Did it say that no one would be safe? I don't see how that's much different than the way things already are in regards to the people after me. Will they become more dangerous?"

"Maybe," said Ron, "but it doesn't matter because the prophesy will only come true if you steal the Wizard's Coal, which he aren't going to allow you to."

Kaito broke out in a light sweat. "Say hypothetically, I were to successfully steal the Wizard's Coal. Do you think this new level of danger would be so great that it would cancel out the benefits of the group being revealed to the police, who could then go after the threat and shut it down, as opposed to the group's continued threat existing in secret?"

"Blimey, you might be right," said Ron, "not that I'm hoping you get away with the ruby or anything. I mean, now that we know that there is a threat out there, we can already do something about it, right?"

"Well," said Kaito, laughing nervously, "about that..."

"What, Kid?"

Kaito spun the Auror around so he could see the disguise, flawless as usual, and pulled something out of a hidden pocket. "I'm sorry to say that the ruby you've been setting up all afternoon to protect is fake."

The thief showed the rock that he'd pulled out of his pocket to Ron. "The real one's right here. I stole it before I even sent out my notice this time. Normally, I wouldn't, but I thought I might not be able to pull it off otherwise this time."

Ron went red and opened his mouth, but Kaito quickly stifled his shout with a gag. "Please, Officer, if you start shouting now, I'll have to knock you out before I tell you what I know about the threat in your prophesy." Kaito put the Wizard's Coal back in his pocket and held up the stun gun for Ron to see. "So if I take the gag back for the moment, will you keep your voice down?"

Taking a breath, Ron nodded.

"Good. Listen closely. I think the serpent in the prophesy refers to a code-name: Snake. He and his subordinates work for a larger organization that are seeking a gem called Pandora. Have you ever heard of it?"

"Sorry, no."

"It's supposed to shed tears that grant immortality if drunken every time the valley comet passes by Earth. I know how to identify it if I run across it – I eavesdropped on _them_ talking about that – but I don't know which gem exactly they're looking for. Luckily, neither do they."

Kaito took a breath. "However, it doesn't seem to be the _only_ magical gem they're interested in. I eavesdropped on them when they followed me on one of my heists back in Japan and heard them talking about a ruby in England that's supposed to be able to predict the time and manner of anyone's death, and thus allow someone to influence a change in it. They said that even if it's not Pandora, that their boss would kill to have it. I did research after that, and I found out that the ruby most likely to be their target is the Wizard's Coal. It looks like I was right about that."

Even though Kaito couldn't see the officer's face, his increasingly tenser body language told him he didn't like what Kaito was describing. Ron asked, "You said their main target is a gem that grants immortality, right?"

"Correct."

"They sound like the Muggle version of Death Eaters to me, well, when the Death Eaters were underground that is... This 'Pandora' you mentioned, did it happen to have another name, like 'the Sorcerer's Stone,' or 'the Philosopher's Stone?'"

"I don't know."

"The Philosopher's Stone was destroyed when I was in my first year at Hogwarts. It was created by Nicholas Flamel, and it produced an elixir that kept him and his wife alive for centuries."

"Centuries? I think Pandora might be older than that. The comet that triggers its tears only comes around once every 10,000 years. Would there be any way to know of its magical properties without it being at least that old?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

The magician paused for a moment, a smile tugging on his lips. "I hope Pandora and the Philosopher's Stone were the same stone. It would mean that Snake and his group will never get their hands on it. But for now, it's almost time to start checking for disguises. There's just one last thing."

Kaito held up Ron's wand.

"Oy," Ron whisper-yelled, "that's mine!" He watched in alarm as Kaito hooked up a bunch of nearly microscopic lights to it.

Kaito shrugged. "And that's why I need it to complete my disguise as you. However, imitating your looks, voice, and personality flawlessly isn't going to cut it for my job tonight. I borrowed your plans to capture me from Chief Gregors' office and I came prepared to mimic the wand effects your partner will be expecting you to hide from the Muggles coming into the museum to block my path. I also replaced the Sneakoscopes with fakes before you put them in your pockets so they wouldn't tip anyone off about me. Additionally, I arranged for an officer to call in sick at the last minute so I could use a spare pin to get past the cursed barrier. There's just one obstacle I can't pass on my own, so you're going to help me with it."

"The security questions? No way."

Kaito slid one last device onto Ron's wand. "This will destroy your wand if I push the proper button. If you help me past the questions, I will return your wand to you, undamaged, after the heist. If not, I will destroy it on the spot and flee. Am I clear?"

Ron looked unhappily at his captive wand. "Yes."

Kaito smiled. "Good," he said. He placed a headset on Ron's head. "I hope I'll be returning your wand to you then." He closed the car door.

Kaito left the car, tested the reception between his small microphone and earpiece and Ron's, and went to the guard's post, muttering about stupid jerks making him spill the chess pieces everywhere and having to hunt through the gutters for them in the dark.

"Even so, it took you long enough!" snapped the other guard, but he did not press Kaito on the issue. "Now stop looking like you're going to bite someone's head off." The guard then muttered under his breath that the chief had never shown up to talk with him.

A few minutes later, Harry arrived. "Evening, Ron, Presbert."

"Evening, mate," Kaito said back in imitation of Ron.

"Right. Since it's almost time for the Muggle police to arrive, and I've got to be directing traffic, I'm going to ask questions only the two of you would know the answer to, alright? Then you do the same to me."

"Right." Kaito inwardly pleaded that Ron wouldn't have him say anything that would reveal him.

Harry asked the other guard first, "Presbert, what was the first thing I said to you when we first met?"

"That the Muggle clothing I was wearing was actually swimwear from the fifties." Harry nodded, satisfied with Presbert's answer. It was now time to see if Ron would stab Kaito in the back.

"Ron," asked Harry, "how did you help get to the Stone in our first year at Hogwarts?"

"I played chess," came the answer into Kaito's ear.

"I played chess," Kaito repeated in Ron's voice. Harry nodded again in satisfaction.

"Right," said Harry, "So now that we know that the two of you really are yourselves, neither of you should leave your post until after the heist. You can go ahead and ask me my question now. I could just as easily be Kid as anyone else."

Presbert requested, "Weasley, you ask him. You know him best."

Ron's voice entered Kaito's ear again: "Ask him who Padfoot was."

"Right," Kaito said. "Er, who was Padfoot?"

"Padfoot was my godfather's, Sirius Black's, nickname among the Marauders."

"Yeah. You're you alright."

Harry went through, and the checking of participants' faces that occurred shortly afterward went uneventfully. Kaito let a small smile appear on his face: Snake and his men had lost already.

"That's everyone who's supposed to enter, right?" Kaito asked Presbert.

"All but the one who called in sick last-minute, er, Kakiudo I think. Let's just get the final enchantments up."

A very un-Ron-like smirk appeared on the Auror's face. "It's a pity, isn't it?" he asked quietly in a voice that was also nothing like Ron's. Presbert reached for the pocket where Kaito knew his wand was hidden, but he was already too late in drawing it. Kaito had already pulled the stun gun out from his own hiding place and pointed it at the guard. "You should have really checked your partner for disguises better." After pulling the trigger, Kaito quickly bound and gagged the unconscious wizard, hid him in the shadows beside the steps to the main doors, and inflated two dummies in place of the guards.

Kaito slipped inside, holding up an umbrella as he passed under the Thief's Downfall, and using a sheet to disguise himself as a wall in the museum's entrance hall. He waited there until it was time to enter the room that had the Wizard's Coal.


	6. Chapter 6

Harry was confident that he had the Wizard's Coal well-guarded. He had not detected Kid in the building prior to placing police inside the museum, so the thief would have to break in to obtain his prize. Harry knew that there were only three routes Kid could take if he were to break in and come get the Wizard's Coal – assuming he could get past security.

First, the thief could enter through the roof of the three-story-high building, gaining access through the air vent outlet that was above the Anglo-Saxon museum. The thief would then have to get through the upper part of the Fantasy in Luxury exhibit and take the wide staircase down to the second-story portion of the exhibit. Inspector Nakamori and one of his men stood guard at either side of the base of the staircase.

Alternately, the thief could come through the main entrance, go down the hallway and through the Trash Art exhibit to get to the staircase to reach the Picasso exhibit that neighbored the room where the thief's target lay. Two officers from the London Police Department guarded that entrance.

Then there was one final entrance the thief could take into the exhibition room – Kid could enter the air vent through the roof and continue in through Two final guards stood under the air vent, waiting in case the thief dropped out from the vent seven feet above the floor. If Kid was a Muggle, it would be dangerous for him to take the drop from the third-story to the second-story air vents, even if he could get past the Cauterwauling charms. If he was a wizard, it would be relatively simple. This route was the least secure if Kid was a wizard, so Harry was guarding the air vent entrance into the Wizard's Coal's exhibition room himself.

Then the radio carried the voice of an officer to the room of the Fantasy and Luxury exhibit: "This is Constable Thums in the Trash Art exhibit. We just heard some noises coming from the air vents overhead."

Kid? No, something wasn't right. Harry remembered setting up Cauterwauling charms on all parts of the building where officers weren't assigned to watch. If Kid really was coming through the air vents, shouldn't they have gone off? That is, unless Kid had undone the charms... "I want you to find out what's going on in the vents."

"Yes sir."

Then Nakamori roared into his own radio: "Put gas masks on – it could be a trap!"

Moments later, the radio carried another voice to the room of the Wizard's Coal: "This is Constable Carver in the Anglo-Saxon Artifacts exhibit. We're also hearing strange noises from the air vents."

"Do the same thing Inspector Nakamori told the officers in the Trash Art exhibit to do," Harry told them.

"Right!"

Thums reported back in: "Sir, we just saw something white go through the intersection of the air vent system! It was headed toward the security office."

Carver's voice cried: "It's Kid! In the air vents! I see him stopped in front of the grate across from this room!"

"Across from the Anglo-Saxon exhibit? That's the other part of this exhibit, directly above this room, isn't it?" Nakamori asked. "What are you doing? Get Kid already! Those on the top floor of the Fantasy and Luxury exhibit, prepare to grab Kid as he comes out of the vent!"

Resounding cries of "Yes!" and "Hai!" came over the radio as Nakamori growled something to the officer guarding the staircase with him in Japanese and tensed up, watching the stairs intently. Shortly, screams came through the vents. The officers entering the vents had set off the Cauterwauling charms.

"What was that?" came someone's panicked voice over the radio.

"Sorry," Harry apologized. "We put weight sensors in the air vents. You've set off the alarm. Er, the officer in charge of the sensors is rather eccentric and must have thought that the sound of screaming would make a good alarm."

"Sir?" came Carver's voice. "We sent one of our men into the air vent. It's a dummy."

Dummies? Those would explain how "Kid" got in the vents without setting off the Cauterwauling Charm that the officers climbing into the vents triggered and how there were two of him at once. Where was the real Kid?

Then another report came: "This is Constable McKinnon in the Picasso exhibit. Something just dropped out of the air vent."

"What sort of thing?" asked Harry.

"It's a card, sir. That's strange. It says, 'handrails.'"

"Handrails?" Harry echoed.

"Yes," confirmed the constable, "but there aren't any in this room, sir."

One of the officers stationed in the room with the Wizard's Coal said, "Not in that room, but there are in here," and then he and his fellow officer from the London Police Department broke ranks and ran to check the handrails. Before Harry could shout at them to get back in position, showers of fireballs shot away from the handrails. The fireballs didn't blind anyone because of the sunglasses they wore at Nakamori's suggestion, but everyone was forced to abandon their posts to dodge them.

"Ten o'clock, trouble comes in a flash." A suave voice carried itself into Harry's ears from the direction of the Wizard's Coal. Turning, Harry saw Kid standing in front of the display case that still contained the Wizard's Coal. Kid was casually tossing an identical ruby up and down in the air for the Aurors to see. He was wearing the characteristic smirk Harry had seen the thief wearing in his photos.

Harry blinked. He could have sworn that Kid wasn't near the room before, but he couldn't have Apparated in, could he? The Aurors had set up spells to make it difficult to leave and enter with that method. Harry's jaw dropped, and it remained open as Kid said, "You've done an amazing job at making the display case impenetrable, but I regret to inform you that the jewel you have been guarding tonight is a fake. I already had the real Wizard's Coal before you made plans to capture me. It's here in my hand. I don't know yet if this is the jewel I'm looking for, but it's a special one all the same. I'm not inclined to return it with the way things are right now. Good night, officers."

Kid hopped up on a nearby display case. Harry did not realize until too late that Kid had dropped something as he did so until it was too late. That something – a capsule – had reached the floor and was emitting some kind of pink gas that was making the four Muggle guards in the room fall asleep.

Kid then snapped his fingers and the vent cover above Harry's head popped off. Harry dodged the falling cover, unfortunately allowing the thief the opportunity he needed to get past him and into the vents. In an instant, the Cauterwauling charm was going off.

Harry grabbed for his radio to call the Aurors on the roof, but the alarm had stopped, and there was already a voice coming over the radio: "This is Officer Dennison. Kaitou Kid has just left the building..."

Harry's thoughts raced as he heard Dennison's voice making a report. If Kid wasn't Apparating, then how did he make it through the vent system so fast? And even if he had been Apparating, why would he bother escaping the vents when he could be cleanly away by now?

"...through the vent system and is making his escape via hang glider. We need _all_ officers to give chase immediately! That goes for those inside the museum too! Get a spare vehicle for those inside the museum!"

Harry heard the sound of running footsteps in the next room before he realized that Kid had just impersonated Dennison. But why wasn't the Auror giving a counterorder? Harry called over his radio, "Wait, that was Kid! Don't leave the building. Just stick to the plan!"

"But sir, we're practically outside!" came the reply. "A few of us have left the building already."

"Prevent anyone else from leaving!" Harry called immediately. "I'll take care of Kid. I have a feeling I could spot him if I made a few rounds!" Harry ran outside and found someplace to cast a disillusionment charm on himself and ran to the Ministry car that stored the Auror's stuff. The minute he opened the door, Ron fell out, tied up, but still fully awake and wearing a headset.

"Harry, is that you? I was going to put the chess set away before we actually went on duty, and Kid came up behind me, and you won't believe what happened then."

"You mean other than you getting tied up and being used as Kid's disguise? Come on, Ron. You can tell me later. Right now we need to find Kid. I want to take to the air and see if we can spot him coming out of hiding once the others are diverted. We'll need the brooms."

Harry released Ron, and the two of them grabbed their brooms. But even as Ron cast a disillusionment charm on himself and grabbed his broom, he protested, "But Harry, I know what the prophesy says now."

"Do you want Kid to get away?"

"No, not exactly, but I know who else we're looking for." Ron caught Harry's pointed look. "Er," he said, "I'll tell you later."

The two took off, trying to ignore the bright flashes of color on the streets below them as several fireworks went off. They couldn't see anyone escaping while the Muggles were distracted by the minuscule explosions, but there could be so many directions Kid could use to escape.

Minutes later, the two of them hadn't seen hide nor hair of Kid, and they were in distant pursuit of the dummy on the white hang glider that was drawing quite a bit of attention to itself. Hoping against hope that Kid hadn't already slipped away, they looked for anyone coming out of hiding once the parade of police officers had passed.

The police down on the street were catching up with the descending dummy when "Kid" suddenly exploded in a display of confetti in front of the Aurors. There was still no sign of the real Kid.

Harry swore. "We must have missed him."

"Blimey, why'd the dummy explode?" Ron asked.

"Dunno," Harry replied, but at the same time, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to the right and saw a dark shape moving on the roof of a nearby building. "Over there! Above the computer store ad."

Ron looked. "Snake!" Ron exclaimed as the two of them flew off, leaving the others to stop chasing the dummy that had just exploded and return to the station, defeated.

"Snake?" Harry asked. "What do you mean, Ron?"

"It was in the prophesy," the redhead answered. "The serpent that would chase the dove and the coal, that is. It turns out it's a jewel thief with the code-name 'Snake.'"

"What are you talking about, Ron?"

"As I was trying to tell you, Harry, before Kid took my spot guarding the door, he wanted to exchange information on the threat we were talking about – did you know he was actually the one who asked how we'd be sure one of the guards wasn't replaced? – and he knew what the serpent in the prophesy referred to. There's an organization after a stone called Pandora – which might be another name for the Philosopher's Stone, actually – and they sound an awful lot like the Death Eaters in the years they were in hiding, and one of the leaders is a man who goes by the code-name of Snake. Kid already knew they'd try to kill him if he stole the Wizard's Coal because it was going to be one of their targets first. Er, he also pointed out that us finding the threat might be a good thing because they're out in the open now, and it sounded like Kid's a direct competitor to them who's out in the open instead of hiding his existence."

"That's great, Ron, but why did you agree to talk to him?"

"I tried not to. Honest, I did, but Kid had some sort of weapon to my back and he said he had information that might interest us Aurors."

Then there was a shot and a spot on Harry's arm burst into fire. He fell off his broom and tumbled toward the ground. The last thing he registered before he blacked out was someone catching him.

* * *

Once Harry's arm had been fixed by a Healer, he and his friends attended the meeting held in the aftermath of Kid's heist. The meeting was filled with the tension of experts that had been foiled in their efforts for the first time in a while. Harry, Ron, and several others gave their official reports on what had happened at Kid's heist, and Ron was nearly given a dock in pay for giving their quarry information to bypass security before Hermione convinced the department head that the value of the knowledge gained from the information exchange outweighed what they might have lost in Ron's helping Kid past the security questions. The entire department was upset that, not only was Kid's theft successful, but that the Muggle threat could work around disillusionment charms and that they had lost their only lead on the new threat as well.

As Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked through the halls of the Ministry of Magic, they discussed the heist. Ron was still sore about his wand. "Cheer up, Ron. Kid's got a great track record of returning what he steals. We might have trouble getting the Wizard's Coal back from him because of what he said, but I'm almost certain he'll return your wand." Hermione said helpfully.

"But how long will that take?" the redhead grumbled. "Besides, we can't even track Kid down to make him return what he took."

"If he doesn't return it, we can just buy you another wand," Harry offered.

"Just wait 'til Mum hears I've lost another wand. I'll never hear the end of it. She keeps telling me I've got to be more careful."

"It wasn't your fault," Harry assured his friend. "It was brilliance on Kid's part, really, to use your wand to extort you like that. Clearly, we underestimated his deviousness, even with all our careful preparations against his tricks. I've never known anyone outside the magical world to be able to get around Aurors and magical protections, but yet Kid succeeded."

"He seemed awfully knowledgeable about magic for someone outside our world," Ron replied.

Hermione replied, "Even if he hadn't needed to use special effects with your wand, there was plenty to go on to determine that he's either a Muggle or a Squib, but that's not the point. The point is we have to expect _every_ possibility with Kid. We were even dumb enough not to check for him in disguise at the police station after the heist. Even I was foolish enough not to check."

"Hermione, you were busy enough talking to Hakuba about the Phantom Thief Kid," Harry interrupted.

Ron asked, "What do you mean, we were dumb enough not to check for Kid in disguise at the police station? Why would we do that?"

"Well," said Hermione, "Harry said that after Kid knocked the Muggle policemen out with sleeping gas, he set off the Cauterwauling Charms in the vents, and seconds later his dummy was spotted escaping the building with a hang glider. Harry also mentioned that the alarms stopped going off after the dummy was launched."

"Yes," said Harry, "but what's that supposed to do with..."

Hermione snapped, "I'm getting there! Now, if Kid was using as much real magic as he was using the rest of the night, that is _none_, then he couldn't have gotten anywhere far. He should only have had time to quickly disguise himself and hop out of the nearest vent. Everyone had orders to go pursue Kid, so I doubt anyone would have noticed, and besides, one of the Japanese officers found a vent cover out of place."

"Hermione..." Ron started.

Hermione ignored him. "After that," she continued, "he would have had to distract Chief Gregors and the others who were directing police traffic as the officers who'd left the museum climbed into the spare car he'd called. It would have been easier for him just to get in a car and chase the dummy with the police. After the dummy was shot down, all the police went straight back to the station."

"You think he got in a car with the police?" Ron summarized.

Harry commented, "Clearly, he has no fear of getting caught. I mean, how many times has he joined right in with the police just since we were assigned his case?"

"I reckon he's mad enough to," Ron agreed. "It's just that climbing into a police car to escape arrest is really unexpected. Are you sure that's what he did, Hermione?"

Harry interrupted, "It makes sense, Ron. Kid specifically called for an escape vehicle. You know the police car they found the police radio replaced with a look-alike? You know, the one whose driver claimed to have been called in for the heist last-minute? I reckon he planned to use that car to get away all along."

"But why did he bother?" Ron asked. "I reckon he's _not_ a Squib. I don't think he could have slipped past the guards or launch fireballs from the handrails if he didn't use magic."

Hermione said, "Oh, he used _magic_ alright." Although her words seemed to agree with Ron, her tone of voice suggested otherwise. Hermione clarified, "He used the same kind Muggles use in their parlor tricks."

Ron looked at Harry for clarification, but Harry didn't understand how Muggle magic tricks could fool them either.

Hermione continued, "Not only did Kid have to pass through the Theif's Downfall, which would remove the magic from any items he might have carried through with him, but we found physical evidence of how he pulled off his heist as well."

"We did?" asked Harry.

"Oh, yes," Hermione answered. "The fireballs left plenty of mess. The police found little devices capable of igniting and firing small wads of material into the air, and there was plenty of charcoal lying around that exhibition room after the heist. It looks like he used some sort of nitrocellulose product to blind and distract all the guards in that room, which is also why he said 'trouble comes in a flash.' Also, if he..."

"Nitrocellulose?" Ron echoed.

"It's a highly flammable substance that Muggle performers sometimes use in tricks," Hermione explained. "Apparently, Kid encoded its formula in his manifesto. Anyway, all Kid needed to do was to distract the guards in each room he passed through to enter unseen, but he also rigged a note in the Anglo-Saxon Artifacts Exhibit to create chaos and cover his trail even better. The 'magic' Kid used was really Muggle equipment and misdirection."

"So you're saying he did all that the Muggle way?"

"Yes, and that's not all. When I was talking to Hakuba, he made it clear that Kid does this sort of magic all the time. Quite often, Kid does well enough with his tricks that he can fool all his pursuers, but he sometimes does tricks that need to be cleaned up after or that a bright, attentive person can see through. It happens often enough that I can confidently say that his magic can best be described as Muggle magic tricks, but because he knew about Aurors and magic gems, it's likely that he is either a Squib or a Muggle with some legal sanction for knowing about magic."

"If Muggles could do magic so easily, " Ron started, his foul mood showing through in his speech, "then why do we need _wands?_"

"For goodness sake, Ronald, Muggles _can't_ do Kid's type of magic so easily. And stop pouting about your wand. It will be taken care of soon enough!"

Harry changed the topic away from Ron's wand. "I didn't reckon Muggle magic tricks could be so realistic. Kid had all of us Aurors fooled as well. I can't even guess how he put all the Aurors on the roof to sleep without magic. You know, the place where we found a little paper charm? And some of the enchantments were undone too."

Hermione explained before Ron could bring up his wand again, "You know how the Japanese Ministry noted that there has been some real magic done around his heists, but none were certain of Kid doing it? We have the same story here. We really don't know who planted the charm on the roof – if Kid did it or not – but we do know that none of the enchantments that were undone would have stopped him from getting away. Mostly just intrusion alarms on the windows, which Kid didn't use to get in or out. And even if Kid was the one to plant the charm on the roof, he wouldn't have had to been the one to make it; they sell those things pre-made in Japan. If Kid _were_ a wizard, he would have been able to get in through the roof really easily, but the fact that he had to take the other route backs up the idea that he isn't one. Anyway, did either of you find _anything_ that would help us deal with Snake's group or retrieve the Wizard's Coal?"

"Er, you don't think 'black-feathered dove' is also some sort of name, do you? I mean, the serpent was a guy whose code name was Snake." said Ron.

"Normally, I'd say we go to the library to take a look at a dictionary," Hermione said, "but I'm sure the Japanese task force that's here could be more useful in this case. We could ask them about any names that mean black-feathered dove."

Harry slowed his pace, getting an idea in his head. "You reckon Kid's not a part of the magical community, right Hermione?"

"Yes. What about it?"

Harry didn't answer her question. "Ron, when was the last time you were out in the Muggle world?"

"It was when we were chasing Kid's dummy and looking for the wand-stealing git."

"If Kid's not a part of the magical world, what do you reckon the chances are that he'd be able to return a wand to the magical world? All of the things we know he did to get ready for his heist, he had opportunities do out in the Muggle world. I reckon if Kid's going to return your wand, Ron, he's going to do it in the Muggle world."

At last, Ron's dour mood lightened a bit. "Do you think so?" he asked. "Kid might have reckoned that way."

"If that's the case, he's likely _not_ a Squib," said Hermione. "That begs the question, if Kid's a Muggle, how does he know so much about real magic? Even when they're cleared to know, Muggles don't usually know much about our world."

"Who knows?" Harry asked. "But listen, I reckon we might have another chance to catch Kid. He's got to get near us to return Ron's wand."

"He doesn't have to," Hermione contradicted. "There are plenty of ways to return something without approaching the recipient. Besides, what's to say he hasn't already dropped Ron's wand off at the police station or something?"

"I reckon if Kid's been keeping Pandora a secret from his fellow Muggles, then he must have a reason to keep quiet about the magical world. Maybe he just doesn't want to be chucked in the loony bin or something, I dunno, but I reckon he wouldn't just return a magical object where Muggles might come across it. No, I bet he's waiting for Ron to show up at the police station again to return it."

"Maybe," said Hermione, "but if he's just returning _Ron's_ property, what would he have to lose by having it sent back instead of delivering it personally?"

"He'd consider Ron's wand dangerous, wouldn't he? I have a feeling he wouldn't want it falling into the wrong hands by mistake."

"We could see what happens, but Harry, your idea has a lot of very big if's."

Ron declared, "I say it's worth a shot."

"Who knows?" asked Harry. "Maybe we can also capture Kid while we're there."


	7. Chapter 7

The three Aurors Apparated to a discreet nook near London's main police station. Hermione nudged her friends. "Look on the roof, but don't make it too obvious what you're doing."

Taking a glance, Harry saw a human figure lying low against the roof line and watching passersby. "That's Kid, isn't it? I told you he'd want to deliver Ron's wand personally. How long has he been waiting for us?"

Ron looked relieved at Kid's presence. "He really is returning my wand. C'mon, I want to get it back." He and Harry approached the station, but Hermione hung back, pretending to examine a magazine stand. As they approached, Ron's wand fell from the roof and stopped, midair, in front of Ron's nose.

As Ron picked his wand out of midair, Harry could have sworn that he heard a disturbance. Harry ignored Ron's comments about no devices, no damages, and some invisible string tied to his wand as he looked around to find the source of the disturbance. At last, he spotted Hermione looking smug.

"What is it?" he asked as she approached him and Ron. "I thought you thought that this would be a long shot. Besides, Kid just got away again."

"No, not quite," Hermione answered. "I managed to put a tracking spell on him. It's weak; I think it just grazed him, but we can follow where he goes and narrow down the pool of suspects. Come on."

She, Harry, and Ron followed Kid's trail through a very interesting route before the spell started wearing off. Harry swore. "If we lose Kid," he said, "we lose the Wizard's Coal as well, and that might have been our bait for Snake and his group. Unless we happen to know the whereabouts of Pandora, it's the one thing we know they're after."

"We might not have lost him," said Hermione. "I know the spell's wearing off, but I think we're here. Look." They had arrived at the dormitories of a Muggle boarding school. Following Kid had brought them to one specific dorm building, with a sign on it welcoming an exchange group from Japan for winter term.

"Kid's a high school student?" Ron asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don't you two ever pay attention? Do you know where we are right now?"

Harry checked the sign in front of the dormitory. "Chaucer Hall?"

"No, look!" Hermione pointed at the sign. "Underneath the large greeting – see that paper that looks as though it's been up there for months? - it says these students are from Ekoda High School. That was the high school whose class those Japanese officers were chaperoning, and we _know_ that Kid's slipped in with them on several occasions before. It looks like Kid wasn't impersonating an officer just for his latest heist, but for his whole trip here."

"So we need to check all the Japanese officers?" Ron asked.

"It looks that way, doesn't it?"

The three entered the dormitory lounge. There wasn't a single police officer in sight, but there were high school students scattered around. Two boys were playing billiards, someone sat in an armchair, with blond hair poking out behind a Sherlock Holmes novel, and a messy-haired girl stared at the floor moppily.

"Excuse us," Hermione called to them. "Do any of you know where we'd find the Kid task force?"

The messy-haired girl answered, "Zey went to cerebrate zat Kid's next heist note points back to Japan. Zey chose a bad time to go drink; zey were supposed to superbise a trip to ze Tower ob Rondon. I and Kaito wanted to go, but it doesn't rook rike zey wirr be back in time for us to catch ze rast tour tonight. Zey do zis a rot instead ob chaperoning us rike zey're supposed to be."

"Aren't any of them here?" Hermione asked.

The girl shook her head. "No, zey arr reft."

"Kaito? Kaito _Kuroba_?" Harry asked. "That's the boy who dropped by the museum to drop off Inspector Nakamori's lunch, isn't it? And you're the inspector's daughter, Aoko?"

"Yes," said Aoko.

"Kaito was really good at English," Harry said, thinking back to the conversation that had come up about Picasso's painting in the room of the Wizard's Coal.

Aoko smiled. "He's worked on it since he was a young chird. He's arways wanted to grow up to be a professionar magician who tours ze worrd, rike his dad."

"Your friend's a magician?" Ron asked, suspiciously. Hermione elbowed him.

"I'm sorry about him," she told Aoko. "What he meant was to ask if we could join you?"

Aoko nodded, and the three wizards took a seat. After introductions were made, Hermione asked, "So is your friend a good magician?"

The teenager smiled once again, getting a dreamy look on her face. "Yes. His tricks are amazing. You neber know what he's going to do."

"Sounds like someone else we've run into recently," Ron said dryly.

"What do you mean by _zat_?" Aoko demanded.

Harry intervened before the conversation went bad. "Lay off, Ron. There's no way Kid is a high school student. He's been around for longer than these kids have been alive, remember?"

The blond added a comment in to their conversation: "Or something like that."

"Right. Er..." Ron looked at Aoko. "Didn't you say Kaito's father's a professional magician?"

_"__Ronald_!_" _Hermione hissed.

"No, it's fine," said Aoko. "Kaito's fazer can't be Kid. He died years ago."

"Oh, that's so sad!" Hermione sympathized. "Kaito must miss him a lot."

Aoko agreed. "He doesn't rike to show it, but he does. He's arways cheerfur, but I zink he is more determined now to be rike his fazer zan he was before his fazer died."

"So I'm not saying that Kaito is connected to Kid or anything," said Harry, "but isn't it kind of odd that Kaito has the same name as Kaito Kid and both of them come to England at the same time?"

_"Hee?"_ Aoko looked confused.

"It is rather amusing," interrupted the blond. "I'd say his parents have an unfortunate sense of humor."

Aoko still looked confused. "But why would zey zink zat Kaito... Oh!" She turned her attention back to the Aurors. "You're not Japanese, so you wouldn't know, but _Kaito_ rike _Kaito Kuroba_ and _Kaitou_ rike _Kaitou Kid_ don't sound ze exactry same in Japanese. _Kaito_," Aoko clipped the last vowel, "wiz ze short _t__o_ is a name. _Kaitou_," Aoko held the same vowel longer this time, "wiz ze rong _t__o__u_ is a type ob shief."

"Still, I agree with Harry; it's rather funny they're so close," Ron said. "It sounds like there'd be one little spelling difference between your friend's name and the word for thief."

"In Engrish retters, I suppose you're right," Aoko agreed, giggling.

"Are they written that differently in Japanese?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Yes. Kaito's name uses ze kanji for _cheerful_ and anuzer kanji for ze sound _to, _and ze word _kaitou_ uses for _mystery_ and _to stear._"

Harry and Ron had the same question: "What's kanji?"

"If I recall correctly, they're the characters used in the Chinese writing system," Hermione said, used to being the one to answer all the schoolbook answers for her friends. "Instead of standing for sounds, most of them stand for meaning, but I didn't know they used kanji in Japan."

"We borrowed zem a rong time ago, just rike Engrish borrowed Roman writing," Aoko affirmed.

"But wouldn't you need a lot of kanji if they're based on meaning instead of sound?" Ron asked.

"Yes. We hab to rearn zousands before we can read most zings."

Ron was dumbstruck. "And I thought reading boring case reports was hard!"

"I heard kanji is supposed to be very beautiful," said Hermione. "Can you write some for us?" She fished a mini-notebook and a pen out of her pocket and handed them to Aoko.

"Okay. What do you want me to write?"

"Well..."

"How about _black feather__ed_ _dove?_" Ron asked.

"Brack feazered dove?" Aoko repeated. "One moment. Oh! Zat would be _kuroi hane __no __hato__. _Yes, I wirr write zat for you, but why zose words? Why not _rove_ or _happy_ or somezing?"

"The three of us read a poem that was supposed to be about people from your country, so we were curious about a character associated with a black-feathered dove in the poem," Hermione explained.

The blond interrupted again. "Ah, yes, _kuroi hane no hato,_ a dove that has black feathers," he said. He finally closed his book and came over to join Aoko and the Aurors. "Whatever that poem was was very appropriate for your recent quarry."

"Detective Hakuba," Hermione greeted.

"This is the high school student that solved Kid's riddle?" Ron asked.

"Yes," said Hermione. "This is Detective Saguru Hakuba. He chases Kid around Japan when he's living with his father in Japan, but he became famous while he was living with his mother here in London as a detective. He's known internationally as the Wolf of Europe."

Ron whispered to Harry, "If his mother's English, that explains his accent. Kid's English was perfect, but, you don't suppose the detective's a magician too, do you?"

"I dunno," Harry whispered back, "but I've heard Aoko's friend's English, and he sounded close to native too. He also said he could use perfect English for short amounts of time. We've just got to find the right Japanese person who can use perfect English, Ron, and it won't be a high school student."

Then Harry realized something odd about the situation. "Wait a minute, if your mother lives in London, detective, then what are you doing with the exchange program here? If you were reading your Sherlock Holmes novels, I doubt you came here just to visit your classmates."

Hakuba shrugged. "There's a classmate of mine I'm at least trying to keep an eye on."

Meanwhile, Aoko had written the Japanese phrase down in Hermione's notebook. "Oh!" Hermione exclaimed over the writing. "How pretty! Which ones are kanji?"

"Zis one, and zis one, and zis one," said Aoko, tapping the first, third, and last characters of the five on the paper.

"So what do they mean, respectively?"

Aoko wrote the phrase again vertically. She explained the characters as she wrote a brief description next to them in English. "Ze first one is brack, _kuro_. Ze next is hiragana; it's a grammar ending, _i_. Zis is feazer, _hane_. Ze next one is more grammar, _no_. Zis rast one is dobe or pidgeon, _hato_."

Aoko paused for a moment, "I don't zink I eber heard a poem wiz a dobe wiz brack feazers. What is it about?" Hakuba looked mildly curious as well.

"Erm..." Harry tried to come up with something to tell the Japanese girl without saying anything about a prophesy about Kid's last heist.

"Honestly Harry," Hermione scolded him, "were you paying that little attention to the poem that you don't remember a thing about it? It was about a serpent trying to eat a dove because the dove stole a piece of coal."

Hakuba frowned slightly at Hermione's description of the poem, but he kept quiet about whatever was on his mind. He allowed the Aurors' conversation to continue.

Ron grumbled, "Yeah, but it doesn't make any sense, does it?"

"That's the problem with this sort of rubbish," Hermione agreed.

Ron snorted. "Rubbish, Hermione? We know you thought Trelawney was a big fraud and all, which mind you, she mostly was, but even you had some respect for Mad Myrrdin's ability as a Se- … er, _poet_ earlier."

Ron and Hermione were so involved in their discussion that Harry was the only one who noticed the slight narrowing of Hakuba's eyes at Ron's near slip.

Hermione argued back at Ron, "I said there was a correlation, not that I actually believed in his ability. I'm only looking further into this poem because it's the only lead we've got."

The Japanese teenagers looked unhappy at missing out on something in the conversation. "What's going on?" asked the inspector's daughter.

"They're arguing over a college paper," Harry lied quickly. "Hermione's not a big fan of poetry. Er, she says it's not really practical, but we were assigned to choose a poem and write a paper on what it means in the real world, so she has no choice but to go along with it. She had us choose the poem about the dove because she thought it was less nonsensical than our other options. Er, the author of the poem we chose was English, but he was influenced by Japanese culture, so we're not really sure what everything means. The only thing we've figured out is that _serpent_ seems to be some sort of name. We thought _black-feathered dove_ might have been as well, but the phrase seems a little long for that."

Hakuba chuckled to himself, but he did not share his thoughts with his conversation partners. Aoko, on the other hand, had something to contribute. "Oh? _Anou..._ If it's a name, it could be just kanji wiz no grammar information, and it wouldn't need to be pronounced ze same eizer, but all sree of zose kanji? I don't know any names zat are written 'brack feazer dobe.'"

Hakuba finally shared his thoughts. "I don't know any names written _black-feathered dove_ either, but don't we know someone whose name is written _black feather_?"

"True," said Aoko. "Wonder what he'd say if he knew he had his name in a poem?"

"Excuse me," said Harry. "Who's _he?_"

"Kaito!" the girl answered cheerfully. She blushed. "We have arready talked a rot about his name today, but his famiry name, Kuroba, is written _brack feazer_." Aoko seemed oblivious to the three flabbergasted looks given to her at that moment, but Hakuba didn't. Aoko asked, "Does that help you with your paper?"

Harry was the first to recover. "Yes, yes it does. I think I know exactly how to tackle it now. Thank you for your help, Miss Nakamori. Er, I think I hear the task force getting back."

Aoko brightened up for a second. "Dad's actuarry back in chime for us to make the tour!" But the girl's expression turned sour a second later. "But he's probably too drunk to chaperone us." She stood up. "Excuse me, I must go talk to my dad."

As Aoko left, Ron mouthed to Harry, "'There's no way Kid is a high school student? He's been around for longer than these kids have been alive, remember?"

"That's what I thought," Harry whispered back.

Then Hakuba interrupted, "In college, you should be studying great authors and poets in English classes, should you not? I can't say I know of any great poets known as Mad Myrrdin. Could you give me a few examples of his poems?"

"Er..." began Harry and Ron.

"Actually," Hermione interrupted, "we made the poem up because we didn't want to upset Aoko. Mad Myrrdin wasn't a great poet." Harry and Ron looked at her, surprised. "What?" the witch continued. "Detective Hakuba deduced that much. There's no point in lying about it. You two do remember that he's a really good detective, right? That means it's going to be really hard to deceive him. We don't have to give him any classified information, but it would definitely be best not to lie."

"As I thought," said Hakuba, "you noticed the way Aoko feels about Kuroba too. Thank you for sparing her feelings by disguising your lead, but I must say that I'm curious about how you ended up with a lead like _black-feathered dove_."

"It's that same source we discussed at the station," Hermione told him.

Hakuba was displeased, but he did not press further. "I just hope that, whatever it is, it's a strong enough link between the phrase _black-feathered dove_ and Kid's real name that it will stand up as evidence. The way a name is written seldom proves guilt."

"Detective," said Hermione, "you said the phrase was very appropriate toward Kid? Did you have any reason to suspect Kuroba?"

Hakuba regarded Hermione. "Would I suspect him without reason?" Hakuba paused. "I've dropped a few hints of my suspicions, but I'm reluctant to tell you my reasons; I've had problems when I tried to collaborate on this case with the police before."

"Oi," said Ron, "does this mean you're not going to tell us?"

"I'm considering it." The teenage detective stroked his chin. "Well, I don't see Detective Granger as the type to disregard evidence to make things fit into her own theories, like Inspector Nakamori did, but can you three keep Kuroba from knowing you suspect him? If you're short of being able to prove that he is Kid, then Kuroba will pull an alibi trick and find a way to have the police discount your evidence. He's done so before, if he is indeed the Phantom Thief Kid."

"We have evidence," Hermione said, "but I'm not sure how it could be Kuroba. After all, he's too young."

"I can explain if you can convince me you won't let Kuroba know you're suspicious."

Harry told Hakuba, "We've kept our share of secrets before, and we won't tell you what they are. If you want evidence of how well we can hide something, then think if you have any viable suspicions of what our confidential sources are."

Hakuba thought for while, then consented to talk to the Aurors. "You're unsure how Kuroba can be Kid because of his age," he said, returning to Hermione's concern, "but Kuroba is not too young for that role because we are not dealing with the original Phantom Thief Kid. Kid the Phantom Thief disappeared for eight years, and only reappeared last year, when Kuroba was old enough to become a phantom thief."

"See?" Ron asked his girlfriend. "I was right to be suspicious of him."

Hermione gave him a disapproving look. "What you did, Ronald, was jump to conclusions. Even if your conclusion turns out to be right, it's not a good idea to make a conclusion without sufficient evidence."

Hakuba acted as though he had not been interrupted. "I first suspected Kuroba back in the early months of Kid's reappearance. Kid wasn't quite as neat about cleaning up all the evidence as he is now, and he'd left behind a single strand of hair."

Hermione blinked. "Kid left his _DNA _and still got away with his crimes?"

"I took it to my grandfather's lab and ran it through forensics," Hakuba continued. "One of the first things that was apparent was that the hair belonged to someone of high school age, but Inspector Nakamori disregarded the results because he refused to consider the possibility that the Kid he'd been chasing recently wasn't the same one he'd been chasing originally, especially after he'd suspected Kuroba himself and been seemingly disproven."

"Inspector Nakamori suspected Kaito too?" Harry asked.

"Yes," answered Hakuba. "To my knowledge, you are the third party that has suspected Kuroba of being the Phantom Thief Kid. Anyways, after forensics determined who Kid's hair belonged to, I had to give the inspector additional proof that Kuroba, being a high school student, was Kid, so I handcuffed him to me for one of his heists and waited for Kid to fail to show. Kuroba seemed shocked that he'd been caught, but another Kid, one much more _feminine_ than the one who'd been stealing for months, showed up in his place to bail him out. Since then, I've noticed one of our female classmates trying to give warnings for Kid to Kuroba."

"Do you know why Inspector Nakamori suspected Kuroba, and how he was disproven?" asked Hermione.

"I didn't find out about this for quite a while, but Inspector Nakamori saw Kid's face and recognized his daughter's best friend," Hakuba answered. "It seemed he didn't like suspecting that guy, because he didn't go arrest Kuroba immediately afterward. Instead, he told Aoko his suspicions and waited to physically remove Kid's top hat and monocle at Kid's next heist to reveal his identity. Aoko decided to ask Kuroba on a date during the next Kid heist to prove it wasn't him, but there were records on the surveillance cameras of the amusement park they went to that showed that Kuroba slipped away for a while without her noticing during a movie. If it weren't for what happened when Inspector Nakamori removed Kid's disguise that night, Kuroba's alibi would have been more closely investigated by someone other than myself."

"What did happen when Inspector Nakamori took Kid's stuff off him?" Ron asked.

"It was shown that Kid was wearing a mask of the inspector's daughter under his top hat and monocle that night. Kid claimed that he'd studied everyone close to the inspector and showed up as one of them for every heist. It was assumed that when the inspector had spotted Kuroba's face, that it had been a mask. Seeing a master of disguise showing up as any given person doesn't qualify as proving a person's guilt, but it shouldn't be used to disprove it either. Unfortunately, the fact that Kid _is_ a master of disguise rendered the inspector's evidence unusable."

"Er, if Kid was able to make seeing his _face_ flimsy evidence, then our lead about the black-feathered dove is really flimsy, isn't it?" Ron asked his friends.

"Yes," Hermione answered, "but if we were to combine it with Detective Hakuba's finding holes in Kuroba's past defenses, then we might be able to get him, especially if we get a bit more evidence before going after him."

"Well, what do you suggest?" Ron asked. "We've got to find more evidence soon 'cause Kid's going back to Japan. You heard what Aoko said about her father and his officers going out to drink because Kid's next heist is in Japan."

"Well," said Hermione, "we've figured out why Kid was referred to as black-feathered, but we still don't know why he was referred to as a dove. If we could find that connection, then maybe we'd have the evidence we need. It's not much of a shot, but it's all we've got right now."

Hakuba chuckled. "Haven't you heard that Kid is sometimes referred to as a dove? That white hang glider of his sometimes gets mistaken for a big, white bird, and because he's known to use doves from time to time, the species name has been assigned to him as one of his nicknames."

"Yes, I've heard that," said Harry quickly, "and I also heard Kaito say something about doves at the museum." His friends' eyes quickly turned to him. "There was a painting in the room with the Wizard's Coal, and I started discussing it with him and Aoko. Kaito said it was strangely appropriate to what was happening that night, although his explanation didn't make much sense. He said that there was more than just the dove in the painting – that the dove was surrounded by humanity, but that the dove was the only one who could see it properly."

Hakuba drummed his fingers on his lap. "That sounds like something he'd say, but it doesn't count as evidence at this point. Unless you think it has something to do with his motive, it's not even much of a hint."

There was a lull in the conversation as no one could think what else to say. Finally, Hakuba brought up the outing the phantom thief was interested in. "You know," he said, "I know the real reason Kuroba wants to go to the Tower of London. Days before Kid stole the Wizard's Coal, he stole a sapphire from the Tower of London, and he said nothing about holding onto that one. I suspect this trip was when he was going to return it. If we could catch him returning his prize, then we'd have evidence against him that he'd have trouble getting thrown out the window."

"Well," said Ron, "I reckon the Task Force _is_ to drunk to chaperone."


	8. Chapter 8

The class of Ekoda High School students followed the Aurors to the Tower of London with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Aoko was delighted. She approached the Aurors inside their destination, with Hakuba and another boy sticking close to her. "Sank you so much for chaperoning us!" the girl said. "It's rearry kind ob you to take us to ze Tower of Rondon, isn't it, Kaito?" Aoko glanced at the spiky-haired boy next to her.

"It is," Kaito agreed. "We appreciate this a lot." He grinned the sort of grin that was often seen on Fred's or George's faces when the Aurors were still at Hogwarts, the sort of grin that spoke of mischief.

"Don't worry about it," Hermione told the Japanese girl, "it's the least we could do for you after you helped us out with our paper."

Kaito blinked. "What paper?" he asked. "It's got to have some sort of cool survey or something attached if a high school student could help you out with it, right?" The thief looked genuinely interested, but Hermione suspected he would be if he recognized any of them from their involvement with his last heist.

It was Harry who answered the thief's question. "Actually, the paper was for our literature class. The poem we were reading had some references to Japanese culture that we didn't understand. Maybe we'll tell you about it later. We'd hate to take your time away from enjoying the Tower of London if you wanted to come see it."

Hakuba smirked. "Yes, Kuroba, you wouldn't want to waste a chance to see the landmark that your idol robbed recently, would you?"

Kaito glared at the detective for the comment, but before he had a chance to say anything, a fourth teenager, a red-headed girl, came up from behind the group of teenagers and threw her arms around Kaito's neck. "Kaito, darring," said she, "you and I need to talk for a moment."

Kaito laughed nervously. "Oh, Akako," he greeted. "Hey, we don't really _need_ to talk, do we? I was going to enjoy the tour with Aoko."

"It's okay, Kaito," said Aoko, "you can tark at Akako. I'rr go off ahead wish Hakuba and our new friends. You can catch us when you're done." Despite her words, Aoko did not look like it was okay with her. She chuckled humorlessly. "After arr, you and Akako make a rearry good coupre."

Kaito argued, "No, we don't. Akako, get off of me!" When Akako just hung herself more securely around his person, the magician produced a cloud of smoke engulfing his position and vanished from the redhead's arms. Hakuba swore.

Kuroba had vanished again, and it was critical that they found him so they could catch him returning his stolen sapphire, but as the high school detective and the Aurors looked around for the missing thief, ignoring the very annoyed Aoko Nakamori, Akako got in the way of their search by throwing herself at Harry.

"How derightfur!" the teenager exclaimed loudly. "Aren't you _ze_ Harry Potter? I'be heard ob you, but I couldn't habe imagined getting to meet you by zis trip to Engrand." She was standing what would have been uncomfortably close if Harry hadn't found himself oddly attracted to her. Despite her Japanese heritage, Harry couldn't help but wonder if the young lady had any veela blood as he felt his cheeks burn.

Dismissing that thought – Kaito hadn't been affected by the girl, after all – Harry did his best to escape the strangely star-struck teenager to look for their suspect. By the time he escaped, Kaito was back in plain sight, admiring a tapestry hanging nearby.

Harry glanced at his companions. All of them, except clueless Aoko, looked as unhappy as he felt. "He gave us the slip, didn't he?" he whispered. The answer confirmed his fears.

* * *

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stewed over the Kuroba problem for days, painfully aware that time was ticking down until the Ekoda High School winter exchange students returned to their native land. Things had gotten so bad that Harry had, at one point, even suggested stealing the Wizard's Coal back from Kid, with a predictably poor response from Hermione.

Two days before the students were scheduled to leave the country, the argument about what to do about proving Kaito's guilt came up again between Ron and Hermione, and both of them were in a foul mood.

"Are you sure we can't shove some Veritaserum down Kuroba's throat?" Ron griped to Hermione for the fifth time that day.

"We've been over this, Ronald. We can't go around administering Veritaserum to anyone who's a suspect in one of our cases. It's illegal until we can prove they did it!"

"Kuroba's not a suspect; he _is_ the Phantom Thief Kid!"

"What Detective Hakuba told us is correct; with Kid's exceptional skill at wriggling out of accusations, we don't have enough evidence to prove he's Kuroba, and besides, under the legal system that has jurisdiction over him, we don't have enough for him to be a real suspect either. The Muggles still think Kid's in his thirties to fifties, remember? He's a suspect in our case because of the prophesy, but until we have any sort of evidence that the Muggles would accept against him, we can't touch him."

The atmosphere became even worse when Harry came in with a serious look on his face.

"Harry, tell Hermione that Veritaserum is a good idea!"

"Force-feeding Veritaserum to someone like Kuroba is just as illegal as breaking into the dormitory and going through the students' things without a warrant!"

Harry frowned. "We still have yet to get anywhere on Kid's case, I know, but it isn't our only problem now. I just got a message from Chief Gregors. He's received a request for help on a missing person's case from Inspector Nakamori. An exchange student named Akako Koizumi is missing, and her classmates all swear she's a witch."

"Akako Koizumi?" Ron asked, face going red. "You mean, the one you, Hakuba, and me all got distracted by at the Tower of London?" Hermione glowered at the mention of that incident.

"That's the one," Harry confirmed.

The trio stood in uncomfortable silence for a moment, than Hermione broke it by asking, "Harry, you don't think Koizumi's disappearance is connected to Kid's case, do you?"

Ron interrupted, "How could it be related, Hermione? I mean, sure they're classmates, but you saw Kuroba's reaction to her. He wants nothing to do with her."

"It looked like he wants nothing to do with her _romantically_, Ronald, but I think they're more connected than Kuroba's willing to admit to. Aoko seemed to think that the two of them were a couple, and that means that they've likely spent _some_ time together."

Hermione let that sink in for a moment before she added, "Besides, we still don't really know how Kid knows about the magical world, do we? He has no wizarding relatives of any kind or any status allowing him to know about magic; I checked. However, if Koizumi recognized Harry, then she definitely knows about the magical world, and if she caused a breach in the Statute of Secrecy among her class, then that would at least explain how Kid knows about magic. And we still don't know who's responsible for the sleeping charm or undoing the protections on the windows, do we? And even if her disappearance isn't related to Kid's recent heist, you know we are still obligated to at least check out any claims about magic in a Muggle case."

Rather grumpily, Ron agreed to go with Harry and Hermione to the police station to talk to the students of Ekoda High School about their classmate's disappearance.

When the trio reached the police station, they were met with a strange sight: several teenagers spinning around in circles and slowly reciting _ko ka a mi zu i ko_.

"Er, what are they doing?" Ron asked. "Is it some sort of Muggle thing I don't know about?"

Harry and Hermione elbowed Ron, then Hermione replied in a whisper, "I don't know what they're doing. Muggles don't do anything like it here in England, but I can't speak for what they do or don't do in Japan."

The chief, who was in the middle of shouting at the exchange students, spotted the Aurors. "Thank goodness. Maybe you can get them to stop. It appears the young lady who went missing taught them a spell to locate a person, but all it seems to be doing is making them dizzy and distracting my subordinates."

"You're joking! That's supposed to be a spell?"

"I'd heard magic was practiced differently in other cultures, but I didn't think the Japanese twirled around to cast their spells."

One of the young men participating in the spinning knocked into a table holding a large jug of water and sent it tumbling to the floor.

"Right, er, we'll see if we can convince them to stop, but, er, would you allow us to question them one by one?"

"Would I have called you here if I didn't want you investigating?"

Pretty soon, Harry and Ron had stopped most of the girls from spinning and were still trying to stop the boys from saving "Akako-sama" by spinning around in circles, and Hermione was talking to Koizumi's classmates about her disappearance. There was definitely something going on with Koizumi and the males she came in contact with.

As Hermione spoke to the classmates that had stopped spinning, Aoko managed to dizzily enter the office that was being loaned to the Aurors for their investigation and bump into a wall hard enough to fall over.

"Are you all right?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," Aoko answered, "probabry better zan Akako anyways."

As Hermione helped the girl get up and find her way to the chair, she asked, "What was everyone doing out there?"

"It was a sperr Akako taught to us. She taught it to us when Kaito disappeared on us in Kobe. We had to spin for a day and chant his name backwards, but he came back nonhurt." The girl frowned. "Zat _baka_ disappeared on us again, right after Akako was taken. He's rearry brave, he and Hakuba, going after her, but I'm worried about zem."

"You mean Kuroba and Hakuba aren't here?"

"Zey sweared a rot and ran off. Hakuba said someshing about a kidnapping, and Kaito tord me to stay behind because ze peopre who took Akako are dangerous."

"Did they say anything else?"

Aoko blushed. "Noshing important."

"It might not be any of my business," said Hermione, "but if Kuroba was harassing you, you have every right to get someone else involved."

"Oh no, he wasn't harassing me," Aoko replied. Hermione noticed she was toying with a dove charm on a silver bracelet she hadn't noticed before. "He was being rearry sweet. He tord me he needed someone to come back to so he can be sure to come back, and he reft me wish zis braceret. He said he'd been saving it for a speciar moment." The worried look on the girl's face grew. "He'd better come back nonhurt, and he'd better bring Akako and Hakuba back nonhurt wish him."

"So your friends think Koizumi was kidnapped? Do you know why anyone would want to kidnap her?"

"Werr, maybe..."

"What is it?"

Aoko looked at her knees. "You probabry don't beriebe in zis sort ob shing, and you probabry shink we're crazy for trying to do magic to find our crassmate, but Akako is a rearry good fortune terrer, and she knows arr sorts of usefur magic. She eben taught me a sperr to act rike an adult once."

"She's a fortune teller?" Hermione blurted out, unable to stop herself.

"I know you're not ze sort of person to beriebe in magic, but she's rearry good. She eben predicted zat high schoor detectibe Shin'ichi Kudou shoots Kaitou Kid off ze crocktower once, and she keeps to warn Kaito from danger bery often." Tears entered Aoko's eyes as she fought to put a smile on her face, and she whispered, "I shink he rikes her, but zat's okay because she rikes him back, and, as his chirdhood friend, I just want him to be happy."

"He doesn't look happy with Koizumi. Does he know how you feel about him?"

Aoko blushed quickly. "It's not rike zat! Who'd rike zat sort ob boy? We're just friends!"

"Never mind. Anyway, how do you know Koizumi's magic is magic?"

"Because her rove sperrs work on arr ze boys at schoor. Eben Kaito beriebes her magic is rear, and he's ze expert at magic tricks."

"Do you happen to know who would want to kidnap her for her magic?"

"I don't. Kaito and Hakuba didn't terr me."

"Did they say anything at all?"

Aoko thought for a moment. "Actuarry, I zink Kaito did, but it was rearry odd."

"Could you tell me what he said?"

"He hissed _snake_ when he heard zat Akako hadn't come back from whateber she wanted to do outside ze cafe."

In a rather tight voice, Hermione asked, "Snake? Are you sure that's what he said?"

"It was rearry odd, but I heard him creary."

"And he and Hakuba ran off after that?"

The girl nodded. "Yes. I chased zem and carred after zem to ask zem where zey was going to. Hakuba said Akako was kidnapped. Kaito carred back to stay behind because ze kidnappers was dangerous, but I said he might not come back, so he stopped to terr me zat he wanted me to stay behind so he has a reason to come back and gabe me ze braceret. Zen he ran off again."

"Where did this happen?"

"Ze Thames' Shide Cafe."

"And what way were Kuroba and Hakuba running?"

"Away from Big Ben."

"Is there anything else you can tell me?"

Aoko shook her head. "I'm scared," she whispered on her way out the door. "If zey can take Akako, zen zey can stop Hakuba and..." Aoko's voice caught.

"We'll get them back," Hermione promised. "If you remember anything else, be sure to tell us, okay?" Aoko nodded. "And could you send in the other two investigators that came with me?" The high schooler nodded again.

Within moments, Harry and Ron were inside the loaned out office. "Did you find something, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Would she have had us sent in here if she hadn't?" Ron replied dryly.

"I just talked to Aoko." Hermione announced. "She said that Kuroba and Detective Hakuba ran off after Koizumi." More grimly, she added, "She heard Kuroba hiss out the name _Snake_ before he ran off."


	9. Chapter 9

Saguru Hakuba and Kaito Kuroba had lost the trail. "Are you sure you don't have any more deductions about where they might have taken her, _tantei-san?_" Kaito asked. "You're more familiar with London than I am."

"I might," Hakuba replied, "if you'd share your information, Kuroba. You know something about this kidnapping that you're not sharing. Why did you hiss _snake_ when it was clear Koizumi-chan was gone?"

"Isn't it your job to have all the answers? You must have a few ideas about their current location."

"Do you know what your doing, Kuroba? You're interfering with a kidnapping investigation by withholding the answers. Every moment you fail to disclose about the kidnappers is a moment when our classmate could be being killed."

There was silence for a moment, then Kaito grumbled, "I told you if you weren't going to be useful, detective, to go back with everyone else."

"Stop acting as though its your job to rescue Koizumi-chan. I should be the one telling you to be useful or get out of the way." The boys stopped to glower at each other for a moment, and just as they were engaging in a stare-down, they were interrupted by a car horn.

The boys looked over at the sound of the horn and saw a sleek black car beside them. The driver's window was rolled down, revealing the driver to be Hermione. "Chief Gregors called my colleagues and me about your classmate's kidnapping. Get in, we have a lot to talk about."

Kaito laughed nervously. "It's about that, is it?"

Smirking, Hakuba opened the car's rear door. "You first."

Kaito climbed into the car, ending up in the middle of the backseat between Harry and Hakuba. From shotgun, Ron asked, "How does it feel to be found out, Kid?"

"Pardon?" Kaito asked.

"Aoko Nakamori said you hissed the name _Snake_ before you ran off after Koizumi. I can only think of one reason you'd know that name."

"Oh, you can, can you?"

"Yeah. The only person who should know that name, other than Snake and his men of course, is Kid the Phantom Thief. You were the one who told it to me while you held a stun gun to my back and gave me information on the guys after you."

"Oh, is Kid the only one who would know about Snake?"

"How else would you know about him, Kuroba?" Harry asked. "Normal, everyday citizens do not know the code-names of operatives of secret, criminal organizations. You are neither the police nor a private detective. What else is left but a criminal?"

Kaito was silent for a moment, then: "I don't like to talk about it, but I know of Snake through my father, Touichi Kuroba. Snake and his minions knew my father's reputation as a magician and thought that he might know some things about real magic. They went to him with a demand that they help him look for some sort of magical object, but he refused. They killed him for it. They made it look like an accident, but my family knew better."

Hermione questioned the teenager. "If your story's true, then why haven't they asked for your help? Aren't you a magician too?" she pressed.

"So you've heard about that?" Kaito asked. "Yeah, I am a magician, but, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm just an amateur. They probably think I don't know enough about magic to help them out."

"I doubt that, Kuroba," Hakuba interrupted. "I'm certain that we could call on our classmates to give a testimony counter to that claim. They've seen you showing off."

Kaito was getting very uncomfortable with where the conversation was going, but he didn't let it show. His poker face was challenged when Hermione stated, "You know what we are and why we're involved in our case. We have enough evidence to convict you in one of _our_ courts between the words you and Ron exchanged before your show of stealing the Wizard's Coal and your friend's witness that you know who Akako Koizumi's kidnapper is."

"Really?" Kaito asked, more tension showing in his voice than he would have liked. "How do you figure _that_, Detective?"

"It's the black-feathered dove," Ron stated. "You told me that _serpent_ referred to a name, so I wondered if _black-feathered dove_ couldn't refer to a name as well. We did a bit of digging."

"And?"

"Kuroba means _black feather_," said Hermione. "_Dove_ is a nick-name for the Phantom Thief Kid. The _black-feathered dove_ would mean the _Kuroba-dove _who stole the Wizard's Coal: Kaito Kuroba, the current Phantom Thief Kid. We tracked Kid back from returning Ron's property and came across your dorm building. Your classmates told us that your name meant _black feather_, and I double-checked the name of everyone involved with your exchange group to make sure there were no other matches. You were the only one. We have plenty of evidence to convict you in one of our courts, Kid, so I suggest you cooperate."

Kaito hung his head, but his lips form a smirk. "I guess I finally overestimated my own abilities. You've got me, Detective, but I have to ask, do you have jurisdiction over me? Only in your courts would you have the evidence you need to convict me."

Hermione glanced at the thief in the rear-view mirror and answered, "We have jurisdiction over all things pertaining to the Wizard's Coal, including matters of its theft. However, there is something more important here that you've forgotten about: Koizumi's kidnapping. If you have information as Kid, you have no reason to hold it back now."

* * *

At the station, Kaito told them what little he could about Snake that he hadn't already told Ron before his last heist. He was also forced to admit that Akako had done magic on his behalf at the scene of his heist, and that Snake might have seen her doing it. He said he had seen Snake hanging around outside the cafe, giving Akako an odd look, but he had no clue where Snake and his group could be hiding out, either.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked. "You're _Kid the Phantom Thief. _You're the one who took the gem they're after. Are you sure you haven't heard anything?"

"Snake's the one who killed my father, but he hasn't worked out that I am the one who replaced him yet, and without knowledge of my identity, the only way he has of contacting me is publicly," Kaito responded. "If there were a ransom demand, someone would have heard about it by now." The thief regarded the Aurors and Hakuba. "Look, I might have personal experience with crime, but I'm neither a detective nor a law enforcement officer. Any of you would probably have a better idea of where Akako is than I do."

"Well," said Hermione, "if she's alive, it would have to be a place where either no one would notice or no one would care that they had a young woman with them against her will. If she's dead, there are plenty of places to hide a corpse in London."

Kaito looked at the Auror intently. "If you had a special way of tracking Kid down, then couldn't you use a special way of tracking Akako down too?"

"No," said Hermione. "We were only successful with you because we were there to put the tracker on you."

Kaito hissed something under his breath in Japanese and fell silent. The thief had no more suggestions. Luckily, his classmate had something to share. "Aren't you forgetting something?" he asked. "We have a way of narrowing down Snake's hiding place. Snake is foreign, not likely to be familiar with London. He wouldn't have much knowledge of the city, so the hiding place is probably somewhere that could easily be found out about, like an empty area accessible through a service door of a hotel, or someplace that's been in the news recently."

"Like what? The Century Museum?" Ron snorted. "Empty places don't make the news that often."

"No," Kaito said, "but ones being abandoned do." Four pairs of eyes turned and looked at the blue-eyed magician. "Hakuba, you know my habit of reading every article about my alter ego, right?" he asked.

Hakuba narrowed his eyes. "Just spit it out, Kuroba."

"Well, I was reading about my exploit at the Tower of London, and I skimmed the rest of the news after I had finished. There was a headline there about a pawn shop that had unexpectedly gone out of business. I'd imagine the location's closed now."

"Now that you mention it, I remember that article too," said Hakuba. "It would be a convenient place for people from out of town to hide someone; it's recently abandoned, and it's at an address that's easy to find on a map too. There's no guarantee that Miss Koizumi is there, but without a better lead, we have nothing to lose by checking."

Hermione nodded. "We'll check it out. Now, this is dangerous business and we don't want civilians tied up in it, so we'll leave the two of you behind for now. Detective Hakuba, you're dismissed unless you find anything useful, but could you inform Chief Hakuba about Kid on your way out? I'm afraid the three of us don't have any time to lose"

Hakuba nodded his understanding and left the room. Kaito protested, calling after the Aurors, "Oi, if there's not enough evidence for normal law enforcement to stick charges on me, then why are you handing me off to Chief Gregors?"

No one answered his question.

* * *

Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way to the recently abandoned pawn shop. The place had an exterior entrance on the ground floor of a business complex and a rather unremarkable white paint job. Its windows had black paper blocking the Auror's view of the interior.

The three Aurors had grown enough since their earlier years at Hogwarts that they could not all successfully use Harry's cloak at the same time, so Harry had worn the cloak and Ron and Hermione argued about disillusionment charms on themselves as they approached the shop's entrance door – after all, Harry had been disillusioned when he'd been shot.

"Can't we just send one of us with the cloak?" Ron whisper-argued with his girlfriend. "It's impossible to spot someone under there, even if you know what you're looking for."

"There's no way they could have seen Harry, even with the slight discrepancy against the background that the spell uses," Hermione whispered back. "It was dark, they were far away, and you heard what Kuroba said about Snake's aim. If he'd actually been able to see Harry, he would've hit the bullet-proof vest instead of his arm. I think it was the brooms being visible to someone closer to them than the police were that gave you and Harry away at all. Really, it's not so unreasonable to assume that brooms have riders, considering broomsticks are our worst-kept secret."

In the end, Hermione won out, so Ron cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and waited for Hermione to let them into the pawn shop.

With the faintest flick of her wand, Hermione had the door unlocked in an instant. Entering the stop quietly, however, was another matter. The three of them had forgotten to check for a bell above the door before they came in, and the bell did its job in announcing their arrival.

There were men inside, not many, but more than enough to be a threat to the wizards with their guns pointed at the door. Even though the Aurors could not be seen didn't guarantee the thugs would not open fire if they made the slightest noise, and magic could not help them move quickly enough to dodge bullets.

Harry whispered to his friends, as loudly as he dared, "We've seen enough to investigate further, but I don't fancy our chances against those guns. Let's Apparate back to my office and think how to proceed. On three. One... Two... Three..."


	10. Chapter 10

The three of them landed in Harry's office at the Ministry and immediately removed the cloak and disillusionment charms. "Is everyone all right?" asked Harry.

"Yeah," said Ron. "I don't fancy another trip to the hospital, mate, especially not after seeing what happened to you when you got shot."

"I think we all agree that it's a bad idea to try to dodge bullets," Hermione added. "The question now is, now what?"

The group discussed ideas of how to get around Muggle guns, but idea after idea was shot down. Ron suggested disabling the guns magically, but Hermione thought there were too many of them to get all of them before getting shot. Hermione suggested wearing bulletproof vests, but Harry pointed out that there are areas outside the chest where a bullet would be fatal if they were shot. Finally, Harry suggested that they ask Kaito for advice. After all, the thief had experience in avoiding being shot by the goons with the guns. The three Aurors finally went with Harry's suggestion.

* * *

Kaito had had a point when he'd asked why the Aurors were handing him over to the Muggles to be detained. When the Aurors had handed Kaito over to Gregors as Kid, the chief knew that the three had incriminating evidence against the magician, but since the only evidence he could use himself was the word of a teenage detective who claimed to have heard his classmate confess, he didn't have enough to let him legally retain the thief's custody for an extended period of time.

So Kaito had returned to his classmates as though nothing had happened between him and law enforcement. The Aurors thus found themselves returning to the dormitories hosting Ekoda's winter exchange students in order to talk to him.

When the Aurors came to talk to him, they found Kaito on the roof with Aoko. The thief was braiding a flower into Aoko's hair and telling the girl something in Japanese that was making her blush.

"Kaito," the girl said. "Aoko no koto...?"

The thief grinned at her.

Hermione tapped on the open roof access door beside her. "I'm sorry to interrupt," she said. The young couple looked over in a hurry, faces going red as they realized they had company. Kaito's face also adopted a a look of panic for a split-second before settling into its usual happy-go-lucky features. "We need to speak with Kaito about the kidnapping."

Aoko nodded. "You go, Kaito." With that, the girl made her way off of the roof.

As soon as Aoko was out of earshot, Kaito asked, voice now tense, "What do you want now?" He also took a step toward the edge of the roof.

"You're worried about Koizumi, aren't you, Kid? That's why you ran after her. We'd be willing to work together to rescue her if you returned the Wizard's Coal." Harry said.

"Did you find her?"

"You were right about her being at the abandoned pawn shop."

Kaito considered his options for a moment. "You're lucky I'm soft, Officer." He held his hand out for Harry to shake.

* * *

The Aurors went once again inside the abandoned pawn shop, but this time, they wore bullet-proof vests and brought Kaito with them, dressed out in his father's costume. Kaito reeled for a second from the side-effects of side-along Apparation, but testifying of the thief's great acting skills, or perhaps just a strong stomach, he regained his phantom theif air before the big-fish villains noticed he was there.

"Kaitou Kiddo," growled one of the villains, a mean-looking man with a moustache, "naze koko ni?" He had his gun trained on Kid.

"Snake," Kid spat. "Ojou-chan wa?"

As Kid and Snake continued their brief exchange of ... well, whatever they were exchanging in Japanese, the Aurors spread out, discreetly disabling the weapons of Snake's goons.

Snake fired a few shots at Kid, all of which the teenager dogded. Kaito jumped up on top of a sales counter and pulled a ruby out of his pocket, eliciting a question from the gunman.

After Kid grunted and made some sort of reply, Snake let loose some more lead at Kid, jovially saying something at the theif.

Meanwhile, Kid looked around the room for Ron's and Hermione's blurry outlines. He found Hermione's outline and smirked. He said loudly, "Don't you know, Snake? This is England. We really shouldn't be using Japanese." He watched as Hermione's outline turned his way. "English is the language magic will use here to, I don't know, _disable your gun?_"

Snake growled. The gunman took another shot at Kid, but the Auror had understood what Kid was playing at and caused his gun to jam before the bullet could fly at its mark.

Kid mocked Snake, who was already barking over his shoulder for his subordinates to bring out Akako. One of them made his way through with his gun pressed against the witch's temple. Even to the Aurors who spoke no Japanese, the threat was clear: hand over the jewel, or she gets it.

Kid chuckled, and with a taunting reply, he tossed the ruby in the direction of the goon holding Akako hostage and then shot it a ways away from any of Snake's men with one of his cards. Snake's goons ran after it, with Snake shouting some sort of insult after them.

Meanwhile, Kid ran and helped Akako to her feet. Snake relieved one of his subordinates of their gun and pointed it at Kid. Kid just chuckled, apparently having noticed that the gun Snake held had already been disabled.

Kid whispered in Akako's ear and dropped a smoke pellet. He pulled Akako over to Officer Weasley, who grabbed her and Disapparated. Seconds later, Harry's hand uncloaked itself from the invisibility that had surrounded it and grabbed him for side-along Appartion.

* * *

When Kaito felt the unpleasant squeezing around his body release him, he found himself in a little office filled with gadgets that moved by themselves. He recognized a top that was lighting and spinning around as a Sneakoscope, like the type he'd replicated for his heist.

"So this is the magical police station," Kaito said, looking around. "This place is awesome!" He grinned at a paper airplane that zipped into the room and steered itself onto the desk.

"You," Akako said at him, "don't you rearize zat you'be been caught? Zis is ze end of Kaitou Kid. I warned you! I warned you zat you would be outcrassed by ze nobre stag!"

Kaito had a wry smile on his face. "There were more important things than being caught. I wanted Snake and his men to be thrown in jail, and I didn't mind taking the fall with them. With the Aurors on the look-out for them, maybe my father's murder will finally be avenged."

None of the others were impressed by Kaito's introspection. Ron snapped at the thief, "We said we'd only work with you if you gave us the Wizard's Coal back afterward! What happened to that? If we actually had jurisdiction over you, you'd be in big trouble right now."

"Ronald..." Hermione started, but Kaito had started talking, looking amused.

"So you were bluffing about trying me in your courts."

The freckled red-head snapped at the theif again, "Maybe, but the three of us were witnesses to your confession, weren't we? We could just have handed you over to the Muggle police, which we will, mind you."

"You!" Akako shouted at the Aurors. "You shink you can just take him away rike zat? I'rr carr counterwitnesses myserf if you turn stupid Kuroba in!"

Hermione gave the teenage girl a frosty look. "You're in big enough trouble yourself. Statute of Secrecy violations, using magic on Muggles, suspected use of illegal infatuation charms, and accomplice in theft. I wouldn't suggest getting involved with bailing Kuroba out."

Kaito looked over at Akako and told her something in Japanese, to which the witch pouted and huffed. Kaito turned his attention back to the Aurors. "It should be just between you and me now," he said. "Sorry about her."

"Anyway," Kaito used his handkerchief to pull a very familiar ruby out from his jacket. "It's almost too bad we can't see those guy's faces when they realize that what I tossed over was the fake I made for the museum."

Harry stared at Kaito. "When did you take the fake back from the museum?"

Hermione explained before the thief had a chance: "One of the night-guards at the Century Museum discovered the fake missing as he was making his rounds last night. My guess is that Kuroba discovered that we'd removed the enchantments on the Century Museum that we set up for his heist and stole the fake back after making the deal with us, and then didn't tell us about his plan. Is that right, Kid?"

Kaito shrugged. "I didn't tell you about the plan because I didn't want to get your hopes up that it would work. I pulled the same trick on Snake and his men once before."

Kaito started to hand the Wizard's Coal to Officer Potter, but he pulled his hand away at the last second. "My concern about returning this still stands. If I give it back, can you keep it away from Snake? I wasn't very impressed with the museum's security measures when I broke in to steal it and plant the fake."

"If we were capable of tracking you down," Harry asked, "don't you think we could handle Snake and his men? What are you capable of that we aren't?"

Laughing softly, Kaito handed the Wizard's Coal over. "I guess you have a point there, Mister Auror." A dark look came over the boy's features. "Hey, I know you don't usually do favors for criminals, but if you're going to hand me over to the Muggle police, could I at least say good-bye to Aoko first? She'll flip out worse if she hears I'm Kid from anyone else," Kaito paused, poker face being unable to hide the red that his face was burning, "especially since I got up the courage today to tell her I love her."

Hermione looked like she wanted to ask Kaito something, but Ron changed the topic before she had a chance. He had been looking at the paper airplane on the desk, and he said, "They've finished modifying the exchange students' memories. The only one left is Kuroba."

Kuroba looked alarmed. "Modifying memories?"

"It's necessary, Kuroba," Hermione explained gently. "Muggles aren't supposed to know about magic. You might have found out because Koizumi was open with her magic, but the magical world doesn't leave Muggles in the know. We've had enough persecution, thank you. Modifying your memory won't harm you."

"Won't harm me how?" Kaito asked, indignant. "I'd expect it wouldn't leave physical harm, but what about psychologial or social harm? You were planning to hand me over the Muggle police after hearing my confession, but if you messed with my memory, would I remember confessing or why I confessed?"

"Don't worry, it won't be an issue. The spell won't harm you."

Kaito looked skeptical.

"Never mind that now," said Harry. "We need you to officially give your statements of what happened in the case of Kid the Phantom Thief and in your friend's kidnapping before we can do anything anyway. We can talk to you more about it later."

"Do I even get a say in what happens to my memory?" the thief asked, clearly displeased.

"Well," said Hermione. "Techincally, it's your mind that decides what you remember in place of magic. Usually it's a subconscious process, but if you start thinking about what you want to remember in place of magic, you might get some choice. Does that help?"

"No, but maybe I could refuse to talk about the cases. Ever think about that?"

"Actually, since we could prove you were Kid, we had the authority to give you truth potion, and the potion does not give you the option of keeping silent. You will talk whether you want to or not."

Hermione's words upset the thief even more. Growling, he slowly clenched and unclenched his fists. "I want to know my rights under your laws."

Harry patted the thief's shoulder, remembering the frusteration he had had when he had been order to a hearing for underage magic. Sure, it wasn't _justified_ legal procedures he had had to face, but at least he had had more of an idea than Kaito did of what to expect when he got there, even if he hadn't grown up in the magical world himself. "We won't do a thing until you're satisfied you understand your rights," he promised. "We'll explain in the confession room because we keep the pamphlets that summarize criminal rights in there, okay?"

"Criminal rights, yes, but what about my rights as a Muggle, or as a foreigner?"

"We'll catch you up to speed on the way there."

It was obvious that the theif was still pouting, but he said, "Lead on."

"Right, come on. Oh, and Ron? Could you take Koizumi to Presbert? He can handle Statute of Secrecy violations and contacting the Japanese Ministry."


	11. Chapter 11

At the end of his tale, the thief, as usual, was smirking. This smirk, however, seemed different than his normal smirk. His normal smirk claimed that he would always be able to get away from his pursuers because he knew everything that was going to happen. The smirk he wore now could not claim he could escape, not when he'd already been apprehended, but it did say that the thief was amused about something the Aurors didn't know.

"Didn't you know, Detective Granger?" Kaito asked. "Even Muggles believe in prophesies."

"Yeah," Harry interrupted, "I reckon you might if Koizumi let your class find out about magic. I mean, wasn't she claiming she warned you of something she saw earlier?"

Kaito shrugged. "Akako always sees some danger of me being caught at my heists. The danger always shows up, but I've never let it capture me. Not until you found me out. But that wasn't what I was talking about. Haven't you ever heard of the psychological idea of the 'self-fulfilling prophesy?' It states that something can happen to you solely because you believe it will happen to you."

"But you didn't show up to steal the Wizard's Coal just because we thought you would," Harry pointed out.

"No, but as I said about Akako's prophesies, the conditions where they might be fulfilled always show up, the warnings just rarely ever happen. My theft was the condition about Muggles showing themselves as a threat to the magical world. The warning was the threat itself, and it wouldn't have affected the magical world if they hadn't caught a glimpse of Akako using magic to counteract the measures you wizards took to prevent my theft and became curious about magic. I guess if they want immortality for themselves, them wanting magic for themselves wouldn't surprise me. If you hadn't tried to stop me from stealing the Wizard's Coal, Snake and his men wouldn't be looking for witches and wizards to find the secret of magic right now."

There was a moment's pause. "I finished telling you about Snake, about Kid, about Akako about my disguise as Itsudo Kakiudo, and about my theft of the Wizard's Coal. Was there anything else you wanted to know?"

"Yeah," said Harry, "er, if you wanted to destroy Pandora to stop Snake's group from getting it, then why didn't you destroy the Wizard's Coal?"

"Unlike Pandora, the Wizard's Coal doesn't have much of a history of people killing each other over it. To be honest, Snake and his men would kill for pretty much anything. It was more because I don't think it's a good idea to let them alter lifespans based on the Wizard's Coal's predictions that I went to such lengths to keep the thing out of their grasps. I didn't destroy the Wizard's Coal because I thought it was best to return it to the proper owner once the museum amped up its security."

Hermione started to open her mouth, but Ron jumped in. "No, that's all. We don't need to know what's going on between you and Aoko just because Hermione's taken a liking to her, seriously."

"I wouldn't ask about that in this setting, Ronald. I was going to bring up the Memory Charm we still need to perform on Kuroba."

"I still see it as harmful. It's the ultimate violation of self. Our memories are part of who we are." the thief grumbled. "What did you want to say about the charm?"

"I wanted to ask if there was anything else you needed to tell us before I perform it on you."

The thief thought for a moment. "Well," he said finally, "if you have to wipe Muggle's memories of magic, you're going to have to wipe more than just mine. I've been looking for Pandora for a little longer than the past year, but Snake and his men have been looking longer than that. I don't know who might have formerly worked with Snake in seeking Pandora, but I know at least Snake's employer knows about that gemstone as well."

Then the thief's eyes widened. "Oh! That reminds me. My experience with magic is _not_ limited to Akako. I've come across many examples as Kid, and many of my motives are connected with real magic. How much do you expect that your charm will affect my life? If I'm going to go to jail for theft, I'd _really_ like to remember not just why I confessed, but why I stole so much in the first place. It's not like I stole just when I thought the guys that murdered my father might be watching. I had to steal to look for that stupid jewel too."

"Just how much has magic been a part of your life, Kuroba?" Hermione asked, glancing at her friends.

"Well, it did affect some major decisions in my life. It was the primary reason for my decisions, sometimes. I've also been around it so often that encountering it is not shocking to me, just surprising at best." Kaito pouted. "The only way I can think of dismissing magic from my life is to write it off as a mental illness that I will doubtless be given dangerous medication for when I'm in jail. No, Miss Auror, modifying my memory in itself won't hurt me, but it will cause me to be hurt."

"Excuse me just a second," said Hermione, standing up. "I've got to look into something."

"Bet you anything she's off to the law library," Ron said to Harry.

"Probably," Harry agreed. "Don't blame her." He thought back to the serial homicide case in the fall. It had been about Muggle rights, after all.

The men sat in silence for a moment, interrupted only when Kid asked how long he had until the truth potion wore off. Harry and Ron had started discussing the Chudley Cannon's surprisingly not-completely-horrible performance in that year's Quidditch tournaments when Hermione came back with Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"So this is the young phantom thief who's been causing the Muggles so much trouble," Shacklebolt said.

Kaito stood up and gave the minister a brief bow. "The name is Kaito Kuroba," he introduced himself. "May I ask who you are?"

"Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister of Magic."

Kaito blinked. "I'm honored, but may I ask what your purpose for coming is?"

"Miss Granger informs me that you are a Muggle thief whose motive was based strongly in magic, in looking to destroy an immortality-granting jewel called Pandora."

"That's correct."

"We've dealt with Muggles who would otherwise have their memories modified but were too involved in magic to viably modify their memories, Mister Kuroba. We make strong confidentiality agreements with Muggles in that situation."

"What is in these agreements, Minister?" Kaito asked.

"We make these agreements on a one-on-one basis because the situations these Muggles find themselves in are out of the ordinary. However, we normally offer them special protection from the magical world as an incentive to make the agreement. But you don't really need our protection, do you? You were capable of physically escaping from our best Aurors."

Kaito's smirk grew a smidgen larger at Shacklebolt's mention of his achievement. "What do you propose to offer instead?"

"You aren't a bad person, Kid. We'd have to work out the details of an agreement, but I think we can neglect to turn you over to the Muggle authorities in exchange for your silence. I don't think the Japanese Ministry would mind either if you kept helping them dispose of magic artifacts that have found their way into Muggle hands."

"Now that's the sort of agreement I'd gladly accept," the thief declared. "We could both keep on doing what we were doing, and it would just be my word against Hakuba's out in the Muggle world."

"What happened to Pandora might be destroyed?" Ron grumbled.

Kaito turned to answer Ron's question. "Pandora is just the stupid rock I'm using to make myself bait for Snake's group. Because I threatened to destroy it, they come after me to get me out of the way, sometimes risking someone finding out about them to do so. I've got to keep stealing until the police get them, even if I do find Pandora in the process."

Hermione cut in, "Kuroba, the whole point of your heists was to call law enforcement's attention to Snake's group without actually just going and telling law enforcement what you'd learned about your dad, wasn't it? I'd tell you how very wrong that was of you, but I don't think you'd listen, and anyway, my point is that you _have_ drawn our attention to Snake's group – do you really think we'd let them keep kidnapping and killing to obtain a _magical_ objective? - so you had better retire!"

Kaito blinked. "Well, um..."

"Besides," Hermione continued, "how do you think Aoko would feel about dating the Phantom Thief Kid?"

Kaito hung his head, Hermione's words clearly not completely wasted on him. But after a moment, he turned back to Shacklebolt. "How soon do you think we can work out the details of that agreement, Minister?"

* * *

Kaito returned to the exchange students' dorms the next day with mixed emotions. He was a free man, and not only that, but there was a type of law enforcement in the know about Snake too. However, Hermione's words stung because she had been right – he really hadn't had a compelling reason not to go to the police with what he'd suspected about Kid the day he learned his father's secret. Sure, it might have cast his dad in a bad light, but Inspector Nakamori, despite his fixation on Kid, had the honor not to drag a dead man's name through the mud without good reason.

The thief supposed he would retire, at least for Aoko's sake. He'd done what he'd wanted to, and he'd been very lucky that nothing too serious had happened to him while he was breaking the law.

Fixing a more acceptable expression on his face, Kaito entered the lounge, where his classmates were passing the time. "Kaito!" Aoko greeted. She was playing card game with Hakuba. "You took a while to talk to those police officers about Akako-chan's kidnapping."

"They found her," the thief explained. "I don't know if she'll be coming back."

Hakuba regarded the magician with a slightly concerned expression. "Is there a reason for that?"

"It's not my place to say. She's fine, but she might be out of our lives from now on."

Aoko was worried too. "She is fine, right?"

"Well, there was nothing she needed to go to the ER for, and she was acting like her usual self afterward. She just ... we might not be seeing her again. But then again, who knows?"

Hakuba then picked up a copy of the morning's newspaper from an empty chair at the card table he and Aoko were sitting at. Maneuvering it so Kaito could see the front page he said, "It seems Kid is back to his usual self too." On the front page of the morning paper, a headline announced Kid's return of the Wizard's Coal. The detective snorted. "That guy must be feeling pretty cocky right now; those police officers who worked on Koizumi-chan's kidnapping had evidence of Kid's identity, and all Kid gets is a spot on the front page for something not nearly as hyped up as his heists."

Hakuba slowly smirked. "But that lousy thief won't be cocky for long. I haven't forgotten what I heard when those officers picked us up when we went after Koizumi-chan, and my witness won't be dismissed forever. If those three police detectives can find evidence against Kid, I certainly can, and I will put Kid behind bars myself. It's a promise."

Underneath his poker face, Kaito was annoyed at his classmate's usual attitude. Well, Hakuba would be Hakuba. The magician turned his attention to Aoko. "The two of us were in the middle of something before the police came to ask me about the kidnapping."

His words were the formula for an instant blush. "Kaito, did you really mean it?"

Fear bubbled inside the teenage boy, but he buried it. "Of course I did, Ahoko. Why did you think I told you something like that?"

Aoko sat in silence for a moment, and in that moment, Kaito feared he'd said something wrong, but Aoko jumped on him to embrace him in the next instant. "I feel the same way about you, Bakaito," she whispered.

Briefly telling Hakuba that she was forfeiting their game, Aoko felt sparks as Kaito slid his hand past the silver bracelet he'd given her to grip her hand in his.


End file.
